Justice for Kate
by Charlie O'Kelley
Summary: Kate finally gets a clue about her mother's case. Unfortunately, it's too late. The first chapter might not be your favorite but give it a chance though, it gets better. ***Chosen as a finalist in the Castle Fan Awards Cased Based Category!***
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: This is set a couple of weeks after Countdown but it isn't the typical Countdown fic. I am all for the stories where they realize how they are meant for each other but this is not that. I got this idea when I noticed a lot of character death stories and it just wouldn't leave me alone. This is not a happy fluff story but give it a chance, you might like it. There will be quite a bit more later, but I haven't gotten that finished quite yet. Most of it has been sketched out but it's still pretty rough right now. I wanted to get it posted before the next episode aired.

* * *

Monday morning dawned just like every other morning for the 12th precinct, or so it seemed at least. Castle was in LA to watch the filming of Nikki Heat and to do a couple of book signings while he was there. Lanie walked into the bullpen with Esposito wanting to talk to Beckett first thing.

"Hey Lanie," Ryan called out as he walked out from the break room. Glancing at Beckett's desk, Ryan asked. "Where's Beckett?"

"You don't think she flew off to LA with Castle do you?" Esposito asked with a smile.

"I know he asked," Lanie said.

"Really?" Ryan was surprised.

"Why does that surprise you? You know how Writer Boy feels about her."

"True, but she would have told us if she left."

"You three my office now," announced the Captain from his office.

Lanie looked at Esposito and knew that something was not right. He took her hand, feeling a sense of dread himself. They walked in and Lanie sat down with Esposito behind her, hands lightly resting on her shoulders.

"What's wrong, Captain?" Ryan asked.

"You know how Kate has been seeing Lockwood each week?" All three nodded. "It seems that he finally gave her some sort of clue or something."

"That's great," said Esposito.

"Turns out, it was a trap."

"A trap," Lanie said weakly.

"She called me to say that Lockwood said something that gave her an idea but she wouldn't tell me what it was. All she said was, 'It's big.'" Montgomery stopped to take a deep breath. "She was driving back when her car was run off the road."

Lanie gasped and reached for Esposito's hand, he held on tight.

"Her car exploded and well, there is no way she could have survived."

"What can we do, sir?" Ryan asked, his voice clearly struggling to remain on an even keel.

"Nothing."

"But, sir. This is Beckett."

"I know but it happened outside our jurisdiction. State police is handling this. They have already notified her father but I am going to go now to talk to him. Esposito, can you call Castle?"

Esposito closed his eyes and took a breath, "Captain…"

"Esposito, he needs to hear this from a friend, not on the news. This is going to hurt him bad enough. He's in LA, give him about an hour or so then call him. The press hasn't broken the story yet but they will soon. Ryan, see if you can find his mother and Alexis. They need to hear it from a friend too."

"Yes, sir."

"Use my phone if you want. I'll make an announcement to the precinct when I get back from talking to her father."

"He doesn't know yet?" Esposito asked.

"State police talked to him last night before they called me."

x-x-x-x

"Esposito, you do realize that I'm in LA. I can't come to the crime scene right now," Castle said sleepily as he answered his phone.

"Yeah, bro. I know."

"Why are you calling anyway? Beckett always calls," Castle asked rubbing his eyes.

"Something's happened, Castle."

"Is Alexis okay?" he asked suddenly awake and throwing the covers off his bed.

"She's fine, so is your mother," he assured his friend before his voice dropped. "It's Beckett."

"What happened? She's okay, right?"

"Castle, I'm sorry," Esposito apologized as he tucked Lanie a bit closer to his side.

"Sorry?" he asked confused.

"She died last night," Esposito finally admitted.

"She d-," he stopped not able to even say that word. "No, you have to be wrong."

"I wish I was, bro," Esposito said wrapping his arms tighter around Lanie as she turned to sob into his chest.

"But-" Castle still couldn't speak or think clearly but able to hear the soft sobs through the phone.

"You need to come home now, Castle. Call me with your flight number and someone will be there to pick you up."

x-x-x-x

"What's up, Rick?" Paula asked noticing his red-rimmed eyes and disheveled appearance. "Is there a reason that you are pounding on my door this early?"

"There's an emergency at home. I need to get back. Now."

"Alexis?" she asked worried.

"I just need to get home. Get me a flight; private, commercial, I don't care. I'll catch a cab and go to the airport. Text me the flight info as soon as you get it," he said and he was already headed out the door.

Rick made it to the airport and before he knew it, he was through security and waiting to board his plane. He sent a text to Esposito with his flight information; he didn't think he wanted to talk to him right now. Minutes later though, his phone rang.

"Dad." Even through a tenuous cell phone connection he could hear the tears in his daughter's voice.

"Hey pumpkin. I'm on the way home. I just sent Esposito a text with my flight info."

"I know. He and Detective Ryan are here."

"Are you at home?"

"No, at the school still but I'll be going home in a bit. I wanted to talk to you first. Are you okay?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "My flight is boarding, so I need to go. I'll be home as soon as possible. I love you, pumpkin."

"I love you too Daddy."

He sadly hung up the phone and rushed to board the plane only to just sit and wait until the rest of the plane boarded. He now had time to think and that wasn't what he needed right now. He thought about last month when they had faced certain death several times but against all odds, they pulled through. Why did he never tell her how he felt then? Sure, she was with Josh and she had talked about how they had a chance at something but he knew that he should have still told her. He knew that he would regret that for the rest of his life.

In a surprisingly short time, it seemed, they were getting ready to land. The flight attendant tapped him on the shoulder and said that Paula had arranged for him to get off the plane first and that there was going to be someone waiting for him to get him to the baggage claim or where ever else he needed to go. A short time after landing, Castle was greeted by Ryan.

"Hey Castle. Do you have any bags?"

"No," he responded as they walked to Ryan's car parked just in front of the doors.

"What happened?" Castle asked after they got out of the craziest of the airport traffic.

"Captain said she went to see Lockwood. He told her something but it was a trap. On the way back, someone ran her off the road."

"Who was it?"

"We don't know. The captain said she wouldn't tell him what Lockwood told her over the phone. We aren't working the case so we don't know much."

"Why aren't you working the case?" Castle asked surprised.

"State Police has jurisdiction."

"And Montgomery is letting them take it?" Castle asked astonished.

"He has no choice. God knows I want to work this but even I know we are too close to this."

Castle slumped in his seat, defeated, staring unseeing out the window for a while before he spoke again. "Has anyone talked to her dad?"

"State police told him last night and Montgomery went over there this morning to talk to him."

"First his wife, then his daughter," Castle's voice broke as he just shook his head. He hoped that Jim Beckett was strong enough to get through this but, honestly, no father is supposed to outlive his child. He himself didn't know what he would ever do if something bad happened to Alexis.

Ryan pulled his car into the garage and was not surprised when Castle bolted out the door before he even put the car into park. Ryan watched sadly as his friend ran to the elevator most likely to go hug his daughter. He pulled out his phone and called Esposito that Castle was on the way. Hanging up the phone, he slowly walked to the elevator himself.

Castle quickly moved from the elevator to his door, not really surprised when Esposito opened it immediately. His eyes searching for Alexis and seeing her moments before she raced into his arms. He just held her tightly, not wanting to let her go. Finally, having to move, he pulled back and noticed the others in the loft. Martha was there and pulled him into a hug.

They all sat around in silence for a while thinking about their lost friend. Ryan finally broke the silence when he began reminiscing about one of their first cases. Soon, almost all of them were all telling stories about Kate Beckett. Everyone except for the storyteller himself, Richard Castle.

x-x-x-x

Castle woke up Tuesday morning with an unsettled feeling. Once he peeked in on Alexis and saw that she was fine, he brushed off the feeling as just having nightmares that he could no longer remember. He walked into the precinct carrying his usual two cups of coffee. He set one coffee on Beckett's desk before he looked around and noticed that other than Montgomery talking to a blonde woman in his office, no one was there. He went to check the break room when Captain Montgomery came up behind him.

"Castle, what are you doing here today?"

"Came to work. Where is everyone? At a scene?"

"No, they aren't at a scene," he said sadly finally understanding that Castle must have blocked out yesterday.

"Where are they?" he asked, once again with that unsettled feeling.

"Ryan and Esposito are at home. You should be too."

"What about Beckett?" he asked, suddenly remembering his nightmare in vivid detail.

"She's gone," he said bluntly.

"No, Captain that was just a nightmare," Castle said, as if he believed it enough it would be true.

"I'm sorry. It wasn't. Beckett is dead," Montgomery said again.

"No, she can't be," he whispered.

"Sit down, Castle. I'll be right back."

Castle fell into the closest chair but jumped up once he realized it was her chair. He sat in his chair and stared into nothingness. He paid no attention to Montgomery walking into his office, saying a few words to the woman there then returning carrying a flask.

"It wasn't a dream?" Castle asked as he took a drink from the flask, uncaring that it was barely 9 AM.

"Wish to God it was a dream. I'll get a uniform to drive you home. You need to be with your family." Castle just nodded and took another drink before handing the flask back.

Captain Montgomery walked back to his office and after setting down the flask, he looked at the woman sitting across from his desk.

"This is going to be a tough week."

x-x-x-x

Wednesday dawned cold and dreary, the same way that Castle felt. He didn't want to do anything but he knew that he had to go to the funeral. He hadn't even remembered what day it was until Alexis had come in and reminded him. He knew that he needed to try to pull himself together, if for no other reason than it wasn't fair to Alexis. Finally, he pulled himself out of bed and headed to the shower.

Castle dressed in one of his black suits with a plain white shirt and black tie. He wasn't about to wear something bright and colorful even though he knew that Kate liked lot of colors. He barely spoke when they got to the funeral home, he simply sat where he was told to sit just behind the family. He sat beside his mother and didn't realize that Alexis had slipped away.

"Captain," Alexis began.

"What can I do for you, Alexis?"

"Can you talk to Dad?"

"How's he doing?"

"Not good. He picks at his food, wanders around the loft all hours, he isn't writing. But what scares me the most is that he's barely even speaking."

"Has he cried?" Montgomery asked.

"No. I know Dad won't me happy that I am talking about him crying and stuff but he hasn't and I think he needs to."

"You're right. I'll see if I can talk to him."

"Thank you, sir," she said as they headed back to their seats.

"Castle," Montgomery said. "Can I speak with you for a moment?"

At first, he just looked at Alexis and she could tell that he didn't want to talk to anyone he just wanted to sit there lost in thought. She knew that while that is what he wanted, it wasn't what he needed right then.

"Go ahead, Dad," she said as she lightly rubbed his back. "We'll be right here."

They walked to the side of the room before the captain spoke, "How are you doing Castle?"

He just shrugged, not sure what to say. He knew the expected thing was to just say he was fine but Castle knew that he wasn't and he knew that the Captain would know that also.

"Alexis is worried about you. She says you aren't writing." Montgomery thought that would be the best thing to mention. He didn't want to upset his friend or make him upset with his daughter.

"I can't."

"You can't write Nikki Heat?"

"No. Not now."

"Then write about Kate Beckett instead," he said as he met Castle's eyes. He broke the gaze when he saw just how much pain was in the blue eyes that usually were full of laughter. "Looks like they are going to get started in a few, there's Jim Beckett."

They went to their seats and Castle watched the elder Beckett as the funeral director walked to the front of the crowd. Castle didn't pay too much attention to the typical platitudes that were spoken until Jim Beckett stood up and started talking about his daughter.

"Most of you knew my Katie as a police officer, a detective. Her quest for justice didn't start when she put on the badge though. When she was in first grade a classmate was being bullied and my Katie put a stop to it. Of course, it started out with her punching bully in the nose and getting kicked out of school," he smiled with the memory. "Her mother and I finally got her to explain what happened and we stood behind her as she took care of the problem herself. She was always stubbornly independent. Not only did she get a great friend in the little girl, Courtney, but also we all learned to not mess with little Katie Beckett," he paused to control his emotions a bit.

"My Katie never backed away from a challenge, from defending a class mate to putting the scum of New York behind bars. Once she set her mind to something she would follow through. After her mom died, she decided she wanted to be a cop. I didn't want her to, I was afraid that she would be hurt, but nothing would change her mind. She insisted that if she didn't have the closure that she needed, then the least that she could do was to make sure that others had that closure. That takes a special person to do that," he ended in a whisper, trying to control his voice. He turned and walked back to his seat, unable to speak any more.

More people stood up to speak and Castle was glad that no one had asked him to speak, he knew that he wouldn't be able to. He was lost in thought as soon as her father sat down. He was a writer and he needed to write and now he knew what to write. Hearing the story of Kate as a child, Castle knew that he could write about her, Kate Beckett, not the pale imitation of Nikki Heat. He knew that he would never publish what ever he wrote about her, Kate was too private for that but he would at least do it for himself.

Soon people were standing up and leaving, to offer condolences to Jim Beckett. Castle told Alexis and his mother to go ahead and he waited until nearly everyone was gone before he finally stood to do the same. He waited for a moment as one final guest spoke to Kate's father. The guest turned around and recognizing Castle he greeted him.

"Rick, it's been too long."

"It has, Cal," he said as he shook hands with the older gentleman. "Good to see you again."

"I just wish the circumstances were different, Rick."

"Me too."

"Jim, have you met Rick Castle?"

"Not yet," Jim said as he turned to shake Rick's hand. "Katie told me a lot about you."

"I am so sorry for your loss. If there is anything that I can do, please let me know." The older man nodded not sure what to say when Cal interrupted them.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Jim but I need to run. Call me if you need anything," he clasped his hand on Jim's shoulder.

"I will, thanks Cal."

"See you later Rick," Cal spoke before leaving. "Tell Martha hello for me and I look forward to talking to her about her school."

"So how do you know Cal?" Jim asked.

"I don't remember, he was a friend of Mother's. I've always known him," Castle said.

"So has Katie. I met him through my in-laws shortly after Johanna and I were married. He really helped out her career. And he was a great friend to Katie and I after Johanna died."

"I would like to talk to you sometime about Kate. I only knew the cop and I would like to hear more stories about her, if you could share some."

"I would like that but not right now. I am leaving tomorrow to go upstate to a friend's cabin. I'll be there for a couple of weeks or so."

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked knowing how stupid the question was as soon as it was asked.

"I'm not going to go drinking if that's what you are asking. Kate worked for five years to finally get me sober. I'm not going to ruin that now. I'll be at my sponsor's cabin, I just need to be away from the city and have time to think."

"I'm sorry. I can't imagine what you are going through. Seriously, if you need anything, call me, anytime."

"Thank you Rick. I appreciate that. And I know that Kate would too."

Castle left the older man standing alone looking at the photos of his daughter that were scattered around the room. He walked outside and not really thinking about it, he walked directly up to Captain Montgomery.

"Captain, I want to have the files for Johanna Beckett's case," he said seriously.

"No," he said simply.

"But Captain. I need to do something."

"You don't need to get yourself killed which it what might happen if you mess with the case. Kate was looking into it and look where we are. Do you want to do that to your mother? Your daughter?"

"But, sir," he pleaded.

"No buts Castle. It's too dangerous and you know it. Stay away from it."

"Okay," he suddenly acquiesced surprising Montgomery. Castle looked around and found Lanie talking to Esposito and Ryan. "See you later, Captain."

Montgomery watched as Castle walked over to Lanie. They weren't subtle as they looked over at him while they talked. The captain cursed, pulled out his phone and made a quick call before he joined his team.

"How about we go out and get dinner?"

"I don't know, sir," Ryan said.

"On me. We'll go to Beckett's favorite Chinese place."

They all looked at each other and agreed. Soon Ryan and Jenny, Esposito and Lanie, the Captain and his wife, and Castle were having dinner and reminiscing about some of cases that they had worked together and some of the things that they had done with Kate outside of the precinct. Again Castle was quiet but he was listening more this time, if for no other reason than to get more ideas for what he was planning on writing.

"I was surprised to see Cal Long there today," Ryan stated.

"Me too," mentioned Esposito. "I didn't know her family moved in those circles."

"Cal's a great guy," Castle said.

"How do you know him, Rick?" asked Diana Montgomery.

"My mother has known him for years. He loves Broadway and he has been an angel for several of her plays."

"An angel?" asked Esposito.

"A financial backer. Several of Mother's shows wouldn't have ever opened if it weren't for him."

They went on to talk about some of the plays and musicals that they had all seen. Lanie brought up some of the ones that she had seen with Kate.

"We saw 'Catch Me if You Can' two weeks ago," Lanie mentioned.

"I thought you said she got those tickets for Josh," Ryan commented.

"What about Kate's boyfriend?" Jenny suddenly asked. "Did anyone call him?"

"They split up a couple of weeks ago," Lanie said as they all looked shocked for not even having thought of him before. "He went to Haiti a couple of days after all that craziness with the bomb."

"Why didn't she say anything?" Castle asked.

"I don't know. I figured she was going to when she wanted to."

Castle was again lost in thought, why didn't she tell him that she had ended it with Josh? He knew that she might be a bit embarrassed for breaking it off so soon after he decided to stay and her making such a big deal about how his staying meant that they had a chance. But still he thought she would have told him. They had shared so much and were such good friends, at least he thought so.

"Remember your spy games case?" Lanie said amused pulling Castle out of his thoughts.

"You were so sure it was the CIA," Ryan said with a grin.

"Well, it did look like it," Castle said with a small smile.

"Yeah."

"I didn't think you were going to come back after that one," Esposito said.

"I didn't either," he said quietly thinking about her being with Demming.

"Do you know she broke up with Demming before you left?" Lanie asked.

"No, it was some time over the summer." He looked around the table and saw all the faces looking at him sadly. "Why didn't she tell me?"

"She tried to, bro," Esposito said gently.

"When?"

"Just before you left," Ryan said.

"With Gina," Esposito added. They all watched as the realization crashed down on him. He didn't speak for several minutes when he finally stood up and spoke.

"I need to leave."

"Castle," Epsosito tried to say something, looking sideways at their captain.

"I'll call you tomorrow," he said as he walked out.

"I shouldn't have said anything," Esposito said.

"No, he needed to hear it," Montgomery said.

"I'll go keep an eye on him. I'll call you later, Lanie," Esposito said as he grabbed his jacket and went to follow his heart broken friend.

Esposito followed Castle to his apartment on foot the entire way. Esposito called Alexis to let her know what had happened so when her Dad got home she promised to keep an eye on him and not let him out of her sight. He came in and nearly fell on the couch his eyes still dry. Alexis had been sure that he would be in tears after the funeral but he wasn't. Maybe it just hurt him too much for him to be able to process it all so far. She just wished that she could do something for him to make him start the healing process.

Thursday morning, Richard Castle woke up with a sore back and a new determination to solve the two cases. The sore back was from sleeping on the couch and the determination was from knowing that he could no longer stand aside and do nothing. He called Ryan and asked him to get Lanie and Esposito and meet them at Kate's apartment.

They met there but Castle hadn't told anyone why he really wanted to be there. They just thought that he wanted to be closer to Kate, they were surprised when he walked in and went straight for a set of shutters and opened them.

"It's gone," he exclaimed. "Where is it?"

"Where is what?" Lanie asked.

"Her murder board. When we were working her mom's case she showed me all these notes here," he tried to explain as he started searching drawers and papers on her desk.

"Castle, we should leave," Ryan said.

"Not until I find those papers," he insisted as he continued to look around.

"Think about it Castle. Someone killed Beckett because she was too close to finding out something. If they knew that they may have known about her papers here."

"No, she never even told Josh."

"Regardless, Castle, if we are seen here we could be in danger," Ryan said.

"I can't just do nothing. I owe her that."

"Montgomery said he told you to write about Kate not Nikki," Lanie said suddenly. Castle nodded and she handed him a stack of books. "Here take these. If you are going to write about Kate, then you need photos."

He looked down to his hands and saw several photo albums, some obviously old and smoke damaged. He still wanted to find the papers but he knew that Lanie and the boys wouldn't let him search any more. He would just have to come back some other time without them. Momentarily defeated, he left the apartment with the books tucked into his jacket close to his heart.

Castle went home and absently fixed himself something for lunch but after he ate it he had already forgotten what it was. He sat at his desk in his office and tried to remember everything that he could about Johanna Beckett's case, taking notes on his laptop as he went.

"What are you doing, Richard?" Martha asked as she came home later that afternoon. "You have that 'pondering a mystery' look on your face."

"Writing," he responded absently.

"That's wonderful, kiddo," she smiled at her son. "Writing Nikki Heat?"

"No, I'm writing about Kate."

"Richard," she said her face full of fear as she sat down on the couch. "Please don't get involved in her case. Please," she begged him.

"Mother?" he asked as he finally looked up at her, seeing her face, he stood and walked over to the couch to sit beside her.

"Jim Beckett has gone into seclusion because he can't deal with the grief of losing his daughter. Please don't do the same to Alexis and I. We wouldn't be able to bear it if we lost you, son."

"Mom, I can't look into the case anyway," he said defeated. "The captain wont let any of us into any of it. Lanie took us over to Kate's apartment this morning and I was going to get all the notes she had from her mom's case. Everything was gone."

"Maybe that's for the best," she said causing him to look at her with a hurt expression. "I can't lose you, son. Going to the Hampton's with out you last month about killed Alexis and I. She cried the entire way. We didn't think we would see you again. Please, son, I beg you. Leave her case alone."

"I need to do something, Mom."

"Write about Kate as a kid then. How she became the woman she was just don't do anything about her death or her moms."

"Her mom's death is a huge part of who she was though."

"You can write about it but please just don't try to solve it."

Castle hated to do it but he agreed with her. He had to think about Alexis first and foremost.

"What are these, Richard?"

"Kate's photo albums. Lanie gave them to me."

"Have you looked at them yet?"

"No."

Martha pulled one album to her lap and leaning close to her son, she opened it and they looked at baby pictures. They were meticulously captioned and dated, often with little stories beside them. Soon they got to a picture of little Katie at a family friends wedding. She was the flower girl. Katie was looking up at the bride with a big smile. The caption said that she couldn't wait until she was the one who got to wear the big white dress. Rick lightly touched the photo but wouldn't turn the page.

"Richard?" Martha asked quietly.

"She told me she was a one and done kind of girl and she never found him."

"I think she did," Martha said after pausing a moment then lightly touching his hand.

"I loved her, Mom," his voice breaking as he finally admitted out loud for the first time.

"I know, son," Martha said as she gathered him in her arms.

"What am I going to do without her?" he finally released his tears.

She didn't know what to say but just held him. She never tried to get him to stop crying or hush him, she just held him tight letting him know that she is there for him. At some point, Alexis came home from her friend's house. She saw that he was finally crying and she just dropped her things and wrapped her arms around him also.


	2. Chapter 2

Justice for Kate Part 2

Author's Notes: I have FINALLY gotten my thumb drive working and the files recovered. I had most of this written out but then my drive went super flaky on me. For some strange reason though, I saved the file on my laptop also but that has some issues also. But now all is well with it, for now at least.

I was a bit concerned with the last part and that it didn't seem to be well received. I hope that you all like this part better. Remember, I don't own Castle.

Rick woke up the following morning with stories of Kate in his head. He remembered the few stories that she had told him about her as a little girl and he knew that he would need more. He knew that Jim Beckett was going to be unreachable for a while and while the guys at the precinct might know some of her childhood stories, Castle felt that he needed more than they could give right then. He needed to talk to someone that actually knew her as a child. He thought back to the day before when he saw his old friend Cal. Kate's father had said that the family had known Cal for years, so picking up his phone Castle dialed Cal Long.

x-x-x-x-x

"What brings me the pleasure of your company today, Rick?" Cal Long asked his friend as he welcomed into his study. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"No. I'm good. I'm working on something new," he explained.

"A new Nikki Heat?"

"No, something about Kate. I know that you knew her as a kid. I only knew her as a cop. I want to know more about her. I talked to her father yesterday but he said he wasn't ready to talk about her yet. I was hoping that you could tell me some stories."

"Sure. I'll be happy to. You really liked her," he stated the obvious.

"She was special," he said looking around the room.

"That she was," Cal said reminiscing as Rick clicked a few buttons on his phone then pulled up the notepad application. "You know, she used to love this room."

"Really?"

"Yeah. When her parents would come over here she would always come in here, she called it the dragon room."

"I can see why," Castle said as looked around the room at all the dragons in it. "I knew you liked dragons but I never knew you liked them this much."

"Most people who have a collection can tell you why they have it. You know a certain memory that makes it all mean something special to them. I just liked dragons, always have. This dragon is one of the first things I bought when I came into some money," he picked up a figurine of a dragon fighting against a knight. The odd thing was that the dragon had his tail down a well.

"This looks like it has a story behind it," Castle said.

"It's the story of the Longwitton Dragon. A small village in England was known for its wells that had healing properties. One day a man went to the wells and saw a dragon drinking from the well. The dragon went invisible but wouldn't leave the wells. The villagers were no longer able to get to the wells and they hired knights to come and kill the dragon. Many came and tried but no one was able to."

"Because the dragon was able to keep drinking from the wells, he would be healed."

"Exactly. And since the dragon could turn invisible at will, no one could fight him. Finally a knight arrived that offered to help. He had a potion that let him see the dragon and for two days he fought the dragon, striking many blows but never doing any damage. Finally, the knight said that he would fight the dragon again but watch closer this time. He noticed that the dragon had his tail in the well and so was able to heal."

"How did the knight get out of that one?" Castle asked intrigued.

"The knight acted as if the dragon had mortally wounded him and staggered off. The dragon followed, wanting to end it. The knight then jumped on his horse and raced around and got between the dragon and the well. Now the dragon had no way to heal and the knight was victorious. That was one of Katie's favorite stories."

"What is the name of that story again?"

"The Longwitton Dragon. You can find it online."

"What other stories can you tell me?" Rick asked after he wrote down the name of the dragon story.

"Well, there was one time that the family came over for dinner. She was just a tiny thing, not more than five. Cute as a button. Long brown pigtails, big eyes and just so sweet. I had met her before but this was the first time that she was coming over for a dinner with grownups. Johanna was worried that she would be too rowdy and break things but I assured her that Katie was fine."

"Was she? She did tell me once that she was a bit wild sometimes."

"Oh, she was fine. She certainly wasn't like some kids that just sit there and are unnaturally well behaved but she was very good for an energetic five year old who wanted to go out and run around in the yard. Johanna and Jim both finally started to relax and stop reminding her to be good when dinner was announced. We were passing the serving dishes around but we didn't want to pass them to Katie since they were hot and rather bulky," Cal could see the inquisitive look on Rick's face before he continued. "As I said, she had been a great kid, up until the time I asked her to pass me her plate."

"What did she do?" Rick asked curious.

"She passed it. Just like her dad had taught her earlier that day when they played Frisbee."

"She threw it at you?" Rick asked shocked and trying to picture Kate tossing a plate across the table.

"Lucky for me, she had bad aim but bad for the wall. The plate flew over my shoulder and hit the wall," he laughed along with Rick. "Jim could barely hide his laughter, much to Johanna's dismay. She was horrified. Katie just sat there and totally straight-faced said, 'You said to pass it.' Poor kid, didn't realize why we all started laughing then."

"Did you invite them over again?" Rick asked with a smile.

"Of course. It was an accident and it gave us all a good laugh. I did make sure to get her some non-breakable plates though. I rather liked that Wedgwood. When she got a little older she discovered this room and she was entranced. She loved the books and the stories. Most little girls seem to put themselves in the shoes of the princess that the knight in shining armor saves in dragon stories. Not Katie. She wanted to be the knight herself. I used to call her Georgie because she liked the story of St. George slaying the dragon so much."

"And that's what she did too. Slaying dragons. And waking them," he said suddenly lost in thought.

"What was that, Rick?"

"One day when we were interviewing someone involved in her mom's case, he said something about waking the dragon." Rick wasn't bothering to look at his friend, he was lost in thought about the interview with Gary McCallister and how that might be the lead that they needed to at least solve Johanna Beckett's murder.

"I wish you hadn't said that, Rick," Cal said in an odd tone of voice finally pulling Rick from his musings. Rick looked up to see the man he had long called a friend holding a gun on him.

"What's going on Cal?"

"Isn't that obvious now, Rick? No need to play dumb."

"So you are the dragon. Why, Cal?"

"The money was too good to pass up. I was talking one night to a couple of cops that used to moonlight as security for me. It was jokingly said that it was a shame that they had to deal with all the little details like warrants for some criminals. You know, the ones that everyone knows are bad but you just can't do anything to prove it."

"Yeah, I know the type," Rick said wryly.

"We decided to do something about it. I backed them up, gave Ragland and McCallister what they needed, and they did all the dirty work. I was just there for information and to help make sure that they didn't get caught doing something stupid."

"And you did all this just for the money?"

"Yeah. I had a financial downturn and I needed some cash. Why should the criminals keep all the money?"

"But killing people? How could you do that, Cal? To the Beckett's?"

"They were getting too close."

"You were Jim Beckett's friend and you took his wife and daughter away. How could you do that to him?"

"Katie figured it out, so did Johanna."

"You killed them," it wasn't a question; it was simply a statement of fact.

"No, I didn't lay a hand on them. I had someone else do it. Can't get my hands dirty now can I?"

"I don't see anyone else here now. Looks like your hands will get dirty now."

"Even so, no one will ever know. Poor guy, you were so heartbroken you came over to visit and picked a fight. I had to defend myself. Then, when I was calling Alexis to see if she could come and get you, you found a gun and shot yourself. Poor guy."

He twitched the gun over to a different chair. "Move over there," Cal said. Rick stood up and moved to the straight chair with arms. When he was close to Cal, he stumbled and tried to knock the gun from his hand. Cal managed to keep a hold on the gun and swung it around and smacked it against Rick's head, causing him to stumble for real. Not wanting to assume that Rick was really knocked out, Cal kicked out, catching him in the ribs. Rick grunted but barely moved as he was struggling to catch his breath.

"Don't do this Cal," he said finally able to speak some. "Not to Alexis. She's just a little girl."

"She's got to learn about the big bad world somehow, doesn't she?"

"Not like this Cal. Please don't do this."

"Like you won't go to your precious police and tell them everything?"

"They won't believe me. They know I come up with crazy theories and they always blow them off. You are too influential in the city for anyone to believe that you are involved in this."

"But you know," Cal yelled pointing his gun at the man still lying on the floor.

"But no one would believe me! Kate was the only one who would listen to me and she's dead. You took away the woman I love. And I never got the chance to tell her." Rick ducked his head not wanting to see the gunfire. He heard the crack of the gun but something wasn't right about it. The shot came from across the room instead.

"Put the gun down, Cal. Or I'll shoot you again and this time it won't be in the leg," said a voice Rick recognized. He knew that he had to be dead if he were hearing that voice. He lifted his head and saw Captain Montgomery as he went to cuff Cal Long. Hearing a noise at the door, Rick turned his head and saw a ghost standing there.

"But you, you, you're dead," his voice stuttered as he grabbed his head with both hands. "Oh God, my head."

"Castle, Rick," Kate Beckett said as he dropped his head back to the floor and passed out.

"Is he okay, Beckett?" Montgomery asked as she moved to Castle and took his pulse.

"I think so. He looks like he got knocked in the head. He's bleeding but I think he'll be fine." She reached out and brushed the hair from his forehead. "Oh Rick, what am I going to do with you?"

She saw that he had his cell phone in his hands and deciding that she should call Alexis, she picked it up and noticed that he had an app running.

"Captain, check this out."

"What you got?" he said hanging up his cell phone after calling for back up and ambulances.

"Castle was taking notes about me. Stories from when I was a kid."

"He said he couldn't write about Nikki Heat so I told him to write about Kate Beckett instead."

Kate was unable to look in the captain's eyes and continued to fiddle with the iPhone when she noticed another app running in the background. Kate smiled as she closed the app, saved the file that it created, and emailed herself and the captain copy.

"You know, you can't prove anything," Cal Long piped up.

"You were seen holding a gun on Castle, that sounds like attempted murder to me," Kate said as more police cars pulled up.

"I'll be out before the day is done," he said confidently as Montgomery led him to the paramedics.

"I wouldn't bet on that," she said with even more confidence. Once he was out of the room, she turned her attention to Castle who was just starting to stir. "Come on Castle. Wake up."

"Who's going to take care of Alexis?" he asked when he opened his eyes.

"What? You are, of course."

"No. Cal killed us."

"No, he didn't Castle," she smiled.

"He killed you. I went to your funeral," he said as he lifted his hand to her cheek. "I must be dead too. I heard a shot."

"You are fine, Rick and so am I. I promise." She covered his hand with hers and interlaced her fingers with his as she lowered them both.

"But your car…"

"They did run me off the road but I wasn't in it when it exploded. I'm okay, really," she insisted.

"We heard there was someone else in here for us to look at," a paramedic said from the door. Kate moved aside but Rick refused to let go of her hand. "So what seems to be the problem?"

"His head is bleeding and he passed out," Kate said.

"So what happened to the head?"

"I got smacked with a gun. Then kicked in the ribs," he inhaled sharply as the paramedic lightly ran his hands where Rick indicated.

"Definitely bruised, maybe broken. How long was he out?"

"A couple of minutes."

"Let's get him loaded up and we'll take him to the hospital and get him all checked out."

"I hate hospitals. Do I have to go?"

"Yes, you do," Kate insisted before the paramedic could say anything else.

"Will you stay?" Rick whispered as he looked at her still holding her hand tightly.

"Of course. Let me tell Roy to call Alexis."

x-x-x-x-x

"Captain," Alexis called out as she and Martha rushed into the waiting room about an hour later.

"He'll be fine," he said as Alexis and Martha gave each other a quick hug.

"Captain," Ryan said as he, Esposito, and Lanie all came in also causing Alexis to tear up. She knew that if they were there then something bad had happened to her father.

"Alexis he is okay," he insisted. "He has a concussion and some bruised ribs. The doctors are running some more scans but you can go back to see him in a bit."

"What happened, Captain?" asked Ryan.

"Castle was doing as I suggested and writing something about Kate. He said that he wanted to find out some more stories about the young Kate Beckett so he went to see Cal Long. He had known Kate since she was a little girl."

"I saw him at the funeral but I didn't get a chance to say hi. How is Cal doing?" Martha asked.

"He'll be okay. And he will be charged for his crimes soon."

"His crimes?" several people asked.

"Yes. It seems that he was behind a lot of things that happened in the Big Apple for years."

"What do you mean?" asked Martha.

"I don't have all the details yet but he is the person who hired Ragland, McCallister, and Lockwood. And Coonan."

"He's the one responsible for Kate's mom's murder?" Ryan asked.

"Yes. We have proof of quite a bit."

"Too bad we couldn't find this out a week ago," Esposito said as he noticed an odd expression on Montgomery's face.

"Alexis, I'm going to go tell the nurses that you and Martha are here. They'll come out to let you know when you can go see him."

"Okay. Thank you, sir."

Montgomery walked to the nurses' station and passed on the news that Castle's mother and daughter were in the waiting room. They said that he was back from his tests and they could come to see him at any time. He stopped at his room for a moment but when he heard Kate talking he decided to leave them be for a moment. He had to get Alexis and figured that this would be the best time.

"I went to your funeral, Kate," Castle said to her again once he was finished with all his tests. His voice was raised this time, he was angry now. He was thrilled that she was okay but pissed that she had put him through what she had. "How could you do that to me?"

"I was trying to protect you."

"Protect me?"

"I asked Montgomery to make sure that you stayed away from anything relating to my mothers case. I knew that you would get in the middle of things and end up getting hurt," she said as she lightly ran her hand over the bandage on his head. "I tried to keep you out of it and you still got beaten up. I was just trying to protect you." She stood then turned toward the window a bit afraid to show her feelings even now.

"Why?" He slowly eased out of bed, moving a lot better than he thought he would be able to. He stopped directly behind her, not touching but definitely in her personal space. "Why, Kate?" he repeated himself.

"Because I couldn't bear to see you hurt," she said as she turned to look at him. They looked into each other's eyes and he leaned down toward her when he heard the door burst open. Rick spun around and quickly placed himself in front of Kate, even now trying to protect her. Her hands shot out and gripped his waist as she saw that he was a bit unsteady on his feet from the quick movement.

"Shouldn't you be in bed Dad?" Alexis asked before noticing Kate.

"Alexis," he said happy to see his daughter, as he walked to her. He watched as she looked behind him and her eyes opened wide. At first, he thought that she might pass out but she just sat down heavily on the edge of the bed. She didn't say anything at first. Martha was similarly speechless and sat down in a chair. Montgomery chose to come in then with Ryan, Esposito and Lanie.

"We went to your funeral!" Alexis cried not realizing that was the same thing her father said. His lips twitched in a slight smile.

"I know and I am very sorry about that." Kate stepped forward to the young woman wanting to pull her into a hug but not sure if it would be accepted.

"Beckett?" Ryan asked in surprise.

"Yeah, it's me."

"Why, Beckett?" Esposito finally spoke.

Lanie didn't care why at that point she just rushed forward and pulled Kate into a bone-crushing hug. Soon Kate was being hugged by nearly everyone, except Castle who hung back a bit. He did notice that once the round of hugs were over she came back to stand next to him.

"Mr. Castle, you really should be in bed," a nurse said as she walked into the room and noticing that he was up and about. "And you really shouldn't be having this many visitors in the ER."

Everyone just looked at her but no one was ready to leave. They wanted to stay with Kate and they all knew that there was no way that Castle was going to let her leave his side any time soon. Castle didn't want the nurse angry though so he went and sat back down on the bed gingerly. Alexis stayed in her spot sitting on the foot of the bed and she put her hands on his feet, making sure that he was okay.

"I guess you all want to know what happened," Kate said after the nurse left.

"You could say that," Lanie said with sarcasm.

"I did go to see Lockwood that day and he did give me a clue. I called the Captain and told him then on my way home, my car was run off the road. I managed to get out somehow just before the car blew up. I got a ride to the city and went to my dad's house. I knew that I had to get there before the police could come and tell him that I was dead. Luckily, I got there just in time," she paused to take a deep breath before she continued.

"That night after the cops got there, Dad and I talked about Lockwood and what he had said to me. I finally figured it out but I didn't have proof. The Captain came by Monday morning to talk to dad and I told him then what I knew."

"Shocked the hell out of me to see her coming out of the kitchen like that. Thought I was seeing a ghost," Montgomery said with a bit of a smile.

"Me, too," Rick said.

"I knew that it was Cal and I knew that he realized that I was on to him, that's why they tried to kill me. I also knew that if I 'survived', they would just try it again. I got lucky once, I didn't want to give them the chance to do it again. Especially since one of you might be with me and could get hurt then too," she said not realizing that she moved a bit closer to Castle as she said that.

"I hated to have to hurt you all but it was the only way that I knew of that I could protect you. Do you all forgive me?"

"Girl, you just figured out who has been behind a large portion of the crime in New York City for years and you ask if we forgive you?"

"I never wanted to hurt you, any of you," she said as she rested her hand on Rick's shoulder. "I just wish that I could have figured it all out and gotten the proof earlier so that the past couple of days didn't have to happen."

"I needed yesterday though," Rick finally spoke softly as he took her hand.

"You needed to cry for so long Dad we thought you were going to be dehydrated?" Alexis asked.

"No," he said as he flushed a bit. "It was something else. Mother, do you mind? Guys? Could we meet back at the loft once I get out of here?"

There was another quick round of hugs and good-byes as the detectives and Lanie left.

"Let's let your dad and Kate talk, kiddo," Martha said after the rest of the room cleared out.

"No, I don't want to leave Dad," she stubbornly insisted, keeping her hand on his feet.

"It's okay, pumpkin. You can come back in a bit, I just need to talk to Kate."

"Okay, Dad," she said after a moment. "Are you sure you are okay?"

"I'm fine, sweetie. I'll be home in a couple of hours."

Alexis looked over to Kate and said, "I'm glad you are okay, detective."

"Thanks, Alexis." She turned back to Rick and saw that he was patting the side of the bed, asking her to sit down beside him. "I really am sorry to have put you through this past week."

"I know," he said as he took her hand in his. "But as I said I needed it."

"Why?"

"Esposito called me on Monday and told me what happened. I was in LA and I flew back as soon as Paula got me a flight. I was lucky that I was dressed and had matching shoes. When I got back we all sat around the telling stories about you. The next morning I got up and went into the precinct and wondered where everyone was. Captain Montgomery had to tell me again. I thought it had all been a nightmare."

"I know," she said as she squeezed his hand. "I was there."

"You were?"

"I was in his office when you came in."

"You were the blonde," he said with amazement.

"Yes. I hated to see you hurting like that. I wanted to let you know but I knew that would be putting you and your family in danger."

"I went home and did nothing. I just sat there staring into space. Alexis and Mother kept telling me to write or do something but I couldn't write about Nikki Heat. I couldn't do anything. Alexis made me get dressed for the funeral and while we were there the Captain said if I couldn't write about Nikki Heat, I should write about Kate Beckett instead. I listened to what your dad said about how you were always looking for justice and I knew that even though everyone said not to, I had to see what I could do about your Mom's case."

"That's exactly why I didn't tell you."

"I know but I needed to do something. I asked Montgomery for the files but he refused. Then I remembered about your murder board. I talked to Lanie and was going to get her to let me in your place but the Captain insisted on taking us all out to dinner. When we got to your place yesterday everything was gone."

"The Captain called me when you were talking to Lanie. He asked if there was anything at my place that you might want. I didn't tell him what I had but I went over there and cleared it all out."

"I was so upset when I saw it all was gone. They tried to convince me that it was too dangerous to get involved and then Lanie gave me your photo albums. I looked at them last night, once Mother got home. I wasn't able to open them earlier. There was one of you as a flower girl," he stopped.

"My mom's best friend's wedding," Kate said.

"The caption said that you couldn't wait to wear the big white dress. I said that you never found your 'one and done.' Mother said that she thought you did." Kate covered their joined hands with her other hand. "My first thought was that I wished that it could have been me. I am so sorry that it took your funeral for me to be able to admit this to myself, and to you but I love you, Kate," he said as he lightly touched her cheek with his free hand.

"Castle. Rick," she said as she leaned into his hand and softly smiled.

"I just needed to tell you."

"I know. I don't say those words easily."

"I know, Kate. And you don't have to say anything. I didn't tell you to make you say it. I thought that I lost you and not telling you before was the thing that I regretted the most."

"Rick-"

"If you don't feel the same way, that's okay," he said. "I just need to know that you are happy."

"I am," she whispered.

"I know it won't be easy but if it makes you happy then I'll do whatever it takes. If you don't want me to shadow you anymore then I won't. I just need to know that you are okay."

"Rick, shut up!" she said with a smile as she leaned down to him. "You make me happy."

Kate leaned further and lightly touched her lips to his. The hand that had been on her cheek wrapped around behind her head, lightly holding her in place and deepening the kiss for a moment before he broke it off.

"Kate Beckett alive and willingly kissing me, maybe I was shot and this is heaven," he said, smiling softly. He lost his smile when she lightly reached out and tweaked his ear. "Apples! Apples!"

"Silly man," she began when the door opened to reveal a doctor. Kate tried to stand up but Rick held tight to her hand and would let her go but he did drop the hand from behind her head.

"Well, Mr. Castle. Looks like all the tests came back fine. Your ribs are going to need to stay wrapped for a couple of days and I'll make sure that you have a prescription for some pain pills if you need some for your head. You will need to have someone stay with you tonight to keep an eye on you, just to be on the safe side."

"She'll do it," Rick pointed to Kate, ignoring her raised eyebrow.

"Okay," said the doctor. "I'll have the nurse come in with all the necessary discharge paperwork. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to call or come back in," he said before he signed some the chart and walked out.

"Kind of presumptuous there, Castle," Kate said referring to her watching him tonight.

"If you think I'm letting you out of my sight anytime soon, you're crazy."

Kate's version of events will be coming up soon. Do you all think that I should change the summary to remove a couple of words? I know that when I see those words, I tend to avoid the story. Let me know what you think in a review. Thanks!


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Notes: First of all, sorry that this part is quite a bit shorter than the others. I have several story ideas that I running amok in my head right now and I'm trying to get all of them down with limited computer time. I usually try to write a part then give it a couple of days to settle before I post it but I am not doing that for this one. I wrote most of this earlier today so please forgive me if anything is definitely off. I will let you know if I do go back and make any significant changes to this part.

On another note, I have followed several others leads and created a Twitter account. I am CharlieOKelley there also so I should be easy to find. So far I only have one follower (thanks teelduo!) but hopefully that will change sometime soon. I will be posting updates there and questions and comments. Maybe some other stuff too but it will all be Castle related at least. Hope to see you there.

Three hours later, Castle and Beckett finally arrived at his loft. Kate was a bit surprised to see that her team was all there. Alexis must have had some thing to do with that. They all gave her a hug when she came in as Alexis helped her father to the couch. 

"I know that technically the last thing you need after getting out of the hospital is a party but I figured that if I didn't do something and make sure you follow some limits, you would go out and hurt yourself."

"You know me so well, pumpkin," he smiled as he sat down on the couch.

"Can I get you anything, Dad?"

"How about some ice water?"

"Okay. Can I have your wallet?" 

"I need to pay for ice water?" he asked with a confused look as she took out a handful of cash. 

"No, but you are going to be paying for dinner. It should be here anytime." 

"What did you order?"

"A variety of things. I didn't know what everyone might want." 

"Thanks, sweetheart."

"No problem, Dad just try not to get yourself hurt again anytime soon okay?" 

"Yeah, Castle. You should listen to your daughter," Esposito said. 

"She is the responsible one in the family after all," Kate said. 

"Yes, I am so responsible, I'm even going to answer the door," Alexis said after the doorbell rang. "And pay for dinner." 

"Yeah, with my money." 

"Do you expect anything less?" She smiled the charming Castle grin as she opened the door only to find it was not the food. "Mr. Beckett. I'm glad you could make it. Dinner should be here soon. I was getting Dad some water can I get you anything to drink also?"

"Water would be great. Thanks." He put the small duffle bag he was carrying next to the closet door but didn't bring any attention to it. He turned to look into the living room and saw his daughter sitting close beside Rick Castle. The author caught his eye and nudged Kate to let her know that someone wanted to talk to her. She lightly squeezed Rick's knee before she stood up and met her dad in the foyer and gave him a hug. 

"It's over dad. I got him, and Rick helped." 

"So, it's Rick now. Not Castle?" She nodded slightly. "I'm happy for you Katie," he said as he gave her an extra squeeze. "I still can't believe it was Cal," he said softly. "I thought he was my friend."

"I know but he's behind bars now and can't hurt anyone else anymore." She pulled back from him and led him back into the living room before she spoke again. "Dad, I want to officially introduce you to everyone." 

"I met them all the other day but I would like to meet them all again." 

"You know Ryan, Esposito, Lanie and the captain. This is Jenny, Ryan's fiancée." 

"Nice to meet you again sir," Jenny said.

"This is Rick's mother, Martha Rodgers and his daughter, Alexis," she said as Alexis handed him a glass of ice water. "And of course, my partner Rick Castle."

Rick moved to stand up to properly shake his hand. 

"No don't get up. Roy said you were hurt," Jim Beckett said as he walked closer to shake Rick's hand. 

"Just a couple of bruised ribs. Good thing I have a hard head." 

"Katie said you helped catch Cal. I can't thank you enough."

"I didn't do much," he said not noticing the look that passed between Kate and Montgomery. 

"You think he forgot?" Montgomery asked. 

"I guess so," Kate responded. "Rick, after we cuffed Long, I went to check on you."

"I thought you were a ghost and I passed out," he said causing some laughter from everyone. She sat down beside him again to explain. 

"Yeah, I saw your phone right there and I noticed there was an app running. You recorded the entire conversation with Long." 

"Really?" he said excited. "Is that going to be admissible?" 

"Even if it isn't, I found enough to put him away for the rest of his life."

"That's great," he said as he lightly touched her hand. 

"How did you get involved Castle?" Ryan asked.

"By accident. The captain suggested that I write about Kate and since I talked to Cal at the funeral and he said he was an old family friend, I thought that he would be able to give me some good stories of Kate as a child. He told me some then started talking about his collection of dragon figurines. He said you liked them as a kid."

"I did." 

"Well, that reminded me of something that McCallister said when we interviewed him. He said that we woke the dragon. I said something about that and the next thing I knew, he pulled out a gun." 

"Castle I would have thought you would have learned not to run theory in front of the bad guys," Ryan said. 

"Yeah," he said a bit embarrassed. "Sometimes it takes me a while to learn things or admit them but I think that I learned my lesson on that one."

"I think you learned your lesson on another one too, kiddo," Martha said.

"Finally," he mumbled looking at the floor, not wanting to look at Kate because he knew that he wouldn't be able to hide the depth of his feelings for her. He didn't want to hide them anymore but he knew that she was a private person and he didn't want to embarrass her in front of their friends and her father.

The doorbell rang again and Alexis opened it to find Ashley carrying several bags of food. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and led him to the kitchen to start serving the food. Rick decided to get up and go change clothes so Kate went into the kitchen to help with the food. Lanie caught her before she could get there though.

"Okay, spill girlfriend."

"What are you talking about Lanie?"

"Don't give me that, Kate. You know what I'm talking about."

"I do, Lanie," she admitted. "I just need some time to think all this over. A lot has happened in the past week."

"You can say that again. Writer Boy is looking for you," she said as she noticed Rick walking out of his room and searching the open area for Kate.

"I promise I'll let you know everything as soon as I can. I just need to figure it all out myself first and I need to talk to Rick about it."

"Just don't wait too long. Of course, I think _Rick_ will wait as long as necessary for you."

"Yeah, well certain things have been said," Kate said a bit embarrassed.

"It's about time," Lanie said.

"Are you ladies talking about me? My ears are burning," Rick said as he walked up to them causing them both to roll their eyes at him.

"Dinner's ready everyone," Alexis announced.

Soon they were all sitting around in the living room with full plates when Esposito finally asked what everyone wanted to know.

"So, Beckett. How about you tell us what happened this past week?"

"You all know that I went to see Lockwood each week to try to get anything from him, right?" They all nodded. "It seems that he told his boss that I was coming each week and the boss was going to do something about it. Lockwood gave me a bit of a warning when he told me that I woke the dragon. I knew that reminded me of something but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I left and while I was driving I was trying to think of where I had heard that phrase before and why it seemed so important."

Flashback

I was driving back to the city from visiting with Lockwood, or at least the man that claimed that name, yet again. This visit seemed different to me somehow. He still hadn't told me the name of his boss but something seemed different. Maybe it was the fact that he actually spoke at all this time. He didn't say much, just that I woke the dragon. I knew that phrase had to mean something to him because I recognized it. I just couldn't remember where I had heard it before in regards to this case. I called Montgomery and let him know that I had some ideas on the case and that I would give him all the details first thing in the morning.

I know that I told him that it was big but didn't think that I had enough details yet to give to him. If Castle weren't in Los Angeles I would have called him to see if we could talk about the case and see what we could come up with. Actually, if he were in New York, I probably would have brought him with me today. I was so lost in my thoughts about my partner that I hadn't noticed a car coming up behind me far too fast for the road. My mind suddenly flashed to the comment that Lockwood made and how I should have realized what it actually was.

It was a warning.

My car was soon flying through the guardrail before landing with a thud then a crash as I ran into a tree, setting off all the airbags. Once the car settled, I was shocked to discover that I was actually okay. I knew that I would be feeling the effects tomorrow but I didn't have any broken bones or worse, a broken neck. I looked into the rearview mirror and not seeing anyone behind me, I still knew that I had to get out of the car and fast. I fumbled with the seatbelt for a bit before I finally removed it. I tried to open my door but it seemed to be stuck against another tree trunk. I scrambled over the center console and managed to get out of the shattered passenger window. I tried to stay down, keeping the car between the road and me. I didn't want the people who ran me off the road to see me that easily.

Moments later, I heard gunfire and I instinctively reached for my sidearm. I suddenly realized that since I wasn't able to wear it at the jail, I had left it in the trunk of the car. And now there was no way to get it since the keys were still in the ignition. I backed up trying to put as much distance between the car and myself but still trying to remain hidden. I finally stood up behind several large trees and took stock of my injuries. I knew that I would be sore all over later but other than some scratches and bruises, I figured that I would be fine. It seemed that the worst of everything was from the briar bush I landed in when getting out of the car.

The gunfire had stopped and I eased out from behind the tree to see two men standing at the road, reloading their guns. I was at enough of an angle away from the car that they didn't bother to look in my direction and I wished once again that I had my sidearm because I had the perfect shot at the both of them. They resumed firing and there must have been a gas leak somewhere because the car suddenly ignited then exploded. The men nodded to each other then climbed back in their car before anyone else saw them.

I knew that I needed to get somewhere safe but something told me not to wait for the police and other emergency personnel that would surely be arriving soon. If Lockwood was able to arrange this or at least let his boss know about it while he was in prison, I didn't know how far it all went. I know I had told Montgomery that it was big and maybe it was bigger than I even suspected.

I continued now the hill until I found a small two-lane road. Soon there was a car that stopped and offered to pick me up. Part of me wanted to hide as soon as I saw the car but I knew that I needed to have some help to get back to the city. Luck was with me this time, as the man gave me a ride all the way into the city and didn't ask any questions other than the address I needed to go to. I gave him an address quite far from my destination but I knew that I could walk the rest of the way or catch a bus at the very least.

I finally arrived at my childhood home but I waited for a while before I went in. I checked it out as much as I could and it didn't appear that anyone was there. I knew that Dad wouldn't be there because he had plans with his best friend every Sunday afternoon for as long as I could remember. I eased into the back yard, popping the lock on the gate with ease. Mom and Dad never did figure out how I could get that lock open from the wrong side and I was glad that I still had the touch. I found the spare key that Dad always hid in the birdhouse and slipped into the house.

The first thing that I did was find the first aid kit that was by the door. I winced as I treated my cuts, some a bit deeper than I had first thought. I was nearly done when I heard Dad's key in the front door. I hid further in the shadows of the utility room as I listened carefully. I didn't hear anyone else so I slipped out of my hiding place.

"Dad?"

"Katie, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I needed to see you."

"What happened?" he asked as he saw her covered in dirt and cuts.

"My car went off the road."

"Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine, just some cuts and such."

"Why didn't you let the paramedics take care of you?" he asked as he grabbed the first aid kit and continued to minister to her injuries.

"There weren't any paramedics. It wasn't an accident, Dad," she said as she looked into his eyes.

"You need to call your captain," he insisted as he pulled out his cell phone.

"No. Who ever it was thinks I am dead, that gives me the advantage."

"Who is trying to kill you?" he asked angry that someone was trying to hurt his little girl.

"The same people who killed Mom," she said softly.

"Who know who it is?"

"I got a clue but I just haven't put it all together yet."

"How can I help?"

"I need a phone and a computer. And Mom's papers." We immediately headed to the basement where Dad had stored all of Mom's things.

"What do you think you might find, Katie?"

"I don't know, Dad. There was something that Lockwood said when I saw him today that struck a chord. I just have to figure out which one."

I was soon lost in thought and going through all the papers that I nearly had memorized. Dad had gone upstairs and brought back his laptop computer and cell phone, along with a sandwich and a soda. He picked up some papers but out them down when he heard the doorbell ring. He went upstairs and didn't realize that I followed him, hiding once again in the utility room by the back door. I didn't want to be trapped in the basement if these were the men I saw earlier.

It was the police; they came to let him know about his daughter's car being blown up. He looked very shocked and part of me was glad that I hadn't told him exactly what had happened. He came into the kitchen after they left, he just stood there for a moment before I walked out from the utility room.

"Katie," he said not surprised that I was there. "I never want to hear something like that again."

"I'm sorry, Dad," I said as I gave him a big hug. "I knew that they were going to come here to tell you and I knew that I needed to see you before that."

"I'm so glad you did," he said. "Let's just find out who did this and put this behind us."

We looked through papers and notes and anything we could think of for the rest of the day. Dad was great at helping just by his being there. We would talk about theories and what some of Mom's notes might mean. He also brought dinner and made sure that I actually ate it. Several hours later, I took a bit of a break and asked Dad a question.

"So Dad if you were a criminal mastermind, how would you hide?"

"In plain sight."

"How is that hiding?"

"I wouldn't hide away, I would just hide that side of me away."

"What do you mean?" I asked, my mind whirling.

"Think about Superman. In the movies with Christopher Reeve, Lex Luthor called himself a criminal mastermind. He wasn't really much of anything except in his own mind. But in the newer incarnations of Superman like Smallville, Lex Luthor is a bad guy but he hides in plain site. Most people think he is a good guy but Clark Kent never really trusted him."

"So you would show your good side to everyone but keep your true self hidden. Thanks Dad."

"Yep, they keep that side invisible. I'm going to head upstairs. Tomorrow is going to be crazy."

"Goodnight night, Dad," I said before she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

More will be coming soon.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Notes: This is all a flash back of Kate's version of her week. I didn't quite finish the week but there isn't too much left so that last bit of the flashback will be in part 5. I had been working okay on this when I suddenly got hit by a major roadblock that took me while to figure out how to get past. Sorry that this took so long but I should be able to focus on part 5 and finish the story up sometime soon. I already have story ideas for the next two stories, tentatively titled 'Questions' and 'Disaster Waiting to Happen.'

Part Four

"Invisible," I mumbled as I thought about what Dad said with hidden bad guys and how they could turn invisible. I was flipping through some more of Mom's papers when I saw a notation that simply said Longwitton. That named sounded familiar so I typed it into the computer's search engine. A few links down the page, I saw something about the Longwitton Dragon. I clicked on the link and read a story about a dragon that would turn invisible.

I remembered then where I had heard that story before. I sat back in shock, thinking that it wasn't possible that a man who knew my mom and her parents were actually responsible for all of this. Or was it? Ragland, McCallister and Lockwood all said that this was big, bigger than I could imagine.

I started doing what little research that I could on my dad's computer. I didn't know how secure his connection and all was or if anyone might be monitoring it at all. I just hoped that the man behind this really did think that I was dead and left my dad alone and I really hoped that Dad didn't say anything to him about me being alive. I decided that I should go ahead and call it a night. I knew that the Captain would be here in the morning and I would ask him for a laptop that I could use.

I stretched out on the couch and pulled the ragged afghan that was my mom's one attempt at any sort of needlework over me. Even though Dad and I had long picked on Mom about the blanket, it still felt like home to me. I dozed off thinking of some of the happy times that we had under that blanket. We used to cuddle under it together when I was sick and she would tell me that each stitch was made with love.

x-x-x-x-x

I woke up from a deep sleep to the smell of coffee. I looked up to see my dad standing there with a smile on his face holding a coffee, a bear claw, and a change of clothes. I couldn't resist smiling as I realized that that was something that Castle always did, the coffee and bear claw at least.

"What's that smile for Katie?"

"Castle always brings me a coffee and a bear claw in the morning." She didn't say anything else about that but did continue speaking. "Montgomery will be coming here as soon as he hears about the accident. I'm going to need to talk to him but then I can't talk to anyone else."

"You aren't going to tell your partner?"

"The more people I tell, the more dangerous it is for everyone. I don't want to do that to Ryan and Esposito."

"I wasn't talking about them, Katie. I was talking about your partner, Rick Castle." I tried not to think of the tone of voice Dad used when he said the word partner.

"Castle is in L.A. right now," I said not meeting Dad's eyes.

"And you really don't think he won't come rushing back here as soon as he hears?"

"He probably will," I sighed.

"He might be a good help, you said before he has people everywhere."

"That's what I am afraid of though, Dad. I trust Castle with my life but if my suspicions are correct, the person who is behind all of this has people everywhere too. And I can't do that to his family."

"You know who it is?" Dad asked surprised.

"Yes."

"Well, who is it?"

"I can't tell you," I said softly, hating to do this to him but knowing that I had to.

"You aren't going to tell me who?" he asked angrily.

"I can't," I said trying to ignore the anger in his eyes. "Dad, do you really think that you won't try to go after this person as soon as I give you the name?"

"How is that different than what you are doing? Tell me that?"

"I'm not going to confront him until I can prove everything. And I will only do that with lots of police protection. I promise," I waited until he grudgingly nodded his head. "You can't tell anyone that I have been here Dad. No one. I don't care how long you have known them or if you are sure you can trust them, don't tell anyone, please."

"So if something happens to you before you confront this person, what do I do then?"

"I have a letter written up for Montgomery that explains everything. If anything does happen to me, he'll know what to do with the information."

"But what am I supposed to do if some more cops come to my door and this time you really are dead?"

"I don't know, Dad," I said the fight leaving me. "I hate to do this to you, Dad. You have to know that but if I tell you, it would put both of our lives in danger."

The doorbell interrupted our argument. It was Captain Montgomery. I walked up the stairs in the utility room as I listened to the two men speak.

"Jim, I am so sorry about what happened."

"I know, Roy. Can I get you a coffee or something?"

"The department wants to have a service on Wednesday if that works for you."

"Um, yeah. I guess. I need to talk to someone about that first though. Have a seat," Dad offered.

"Who do you need to talk to?" the Captain asked as I heard his chair slide against the floor.

"That would be me," I said as I walked into the kitchen. I am glad that Dad asked him to sit because I think he might just have passed out, he looked like he saw a ghost, and in a way I guess he had. After a moment he stood and gave me a big hug. I explained the 'accident' to him before Dad interrupted.

"She knows who is behind it all but she refuses to tell me. Maybe you'll have better luck."

"You know?" Roy asked.

"Yes. I just don't have all the proof yet that I need to make sure he is convicted."

"I still want to know the name," Jim insisted.

"It's probably for the best that you don't," Roy said after a moment.

"Why do you say that? This man killed my wife and tried to kill my daughter and might still. Don't you think I deserve to know?"

"What would you do if you found out? Go after him? You would probably just get hurt. Or make your daughter have to arrest _you_ for murder."

"Do you think I want my daughter to get hurt?" Dad yelled.

"Of course not but she knows what she needs to do to get this guy. And one of the things is to protect the people she loves. She already lost her mother to this guy, do you really think she wants to lose her father too?"

I watched, as Dad seemed to lose the will to fight. He finally realized that I was just trying to protect him.

"Did you tell the guys?"

"I told them this morning. I had Esposito call Castle."

"I wish you hadn't done that."

"You aren't going to tell him," Montgomery insisted.

"Yeah, Kate. You said you weren't going to," Dad interjected.

"I know I said that earlier but I need to tell him."

"After that conversation we just had with your father? I'm sorry Beckett, you can't tell anyone. You probably shouldn't have even told your father that you are alive."

"I couldn't have let Dad think I was dead," I said with no hesitation and he clearly could tell that this was not something that I would fight about.

He nodded. "You can't tell anyone else though. I'm surprised that you told me."

"I trust you, sir. And I can't do this without some help."

"What ever you need, I'll do what I can," my captain promised.

"I need access to the NYPD database and a computer with a secure untraceable connection," I said before I glanced over to my father knowing he wasn't going to like what I said next. "And a sidearm."

"Okay. I'll head back to the precinct and box up the things in your desk for you and bring that and some other things for you." I was glad that the Captain didn't mention a gun even though at my mention of a sidearm, Dad walked into the other room. Dad never liked that part of my job. Montgomery was getting ready to leave when the Captain got a text.

"Esposito just said that he and Ryan are headed to Alexis's school and that Castle is on the first flight home."

"Sir, are you sure I can't tell Castle? He can protect his family and I can protect him."

"No one must know, Beckett. I've told you that. You know that. We talked about that with your dad."

"And there was a reason I had to tell Dad," I admitted.

"Beckett," he started.

"Sir, it's Castle."

"He can't know. He wears his heart on his sleeve for you and he would give it away. You know that, Beckett," he sounded upset for having to put a friend through what was surely going to be a rotten few days.

"This will kill him," I said softly as my shoulders drooped, knowing that he was right.

"I know. I like the man but it has to be done, Beckett. If you want to catch the guy behind this. This is probably the only way you will be able to catch your mother's killer. Don't you think that Castle will do anything he can to help you do that?"

"Of course."

"Then just keep him in the dark for a little while longer. You'll be able to tell him soon enough."

"Can you promise me something?" I asked.

"I'll try."

"Take care of him. Please. Don't let him do anything stupid."

"I'll make sure Esposito and Ryan look after him."

"You won't?" I was surprised that he wouldn't himself.

"I don't think I'll be able to. I don't want to let anything slip and I might. I know how he feels about you, Kate. Everyone does, except for you. I'll be back in a couple of hours with your things and a computer."

"Is he in love with you Katie?" Dad asked after the captain left.

"What?" I asked not realizing that Dad had heard everything.

"Castle. Is he in love with you?" he asked.

"I don't know. I know Castle is attracted to me and he makes jokes but that doesn't mean anything."

"Do you love him?"

"Dad."

"Katherine, do you love Richard Castle?"

"I don't know," I admitted.

"You said there was a reason you had to tell me."

"I love you Dad and I couldn't let you be hurt like that."

"Is the reason you want to tell Castle the same?" he asked gently.

"I don't know, Dad. I-"

"No, don't tell me what you think you should say to your father or what your head tells you to. Tell me what your heart says."

"Yes. My heart says yes. But I'm afraid."

"You need to trust your heart, sweetie."

"I'll try."

x-x-x-x-x

I did some brainstorming and writing down some notes but I didn't want to do any more online research until the Captain brought me another computer. I also wrote up all the ideas into a document for Montgomery. I wasn't sure how I was going to give it to him without him opening the files up right away but I knew that I needed to come up with something soon. Once I was finished with the notes for the captain, I wrote up some letters for my friends. Just in case anything really did happen to me, I want them to know how much they mean to me.

I had just starting a letter to Castle when the Captain came back. He brought me a box of things from my desk, a phone, a laptop with a dedicated wireless connection, and a sidearm. Since I hadn't finished all the letters yet, I decided to wait until they were all done before I gave them to him to hold on to. Once he left again, I went back downstairs to start trying to come up with proof to convict the man who was behind so much pain.

x-x-x-x-x

First thing on Tuesday morning, I knew had to take a chance and go see Montgomery. I had my letters finished and I had a USB drive full of research and ideas on what else it needed for definitive proof. I wish that I had that proof but I knew that this guy was a very powerful man and he might get out of what I had found so far.

When I was looking through mom's papers, I happened to come across some old clothes and things of hers. I know that Dad had gotten rid of most of her things years ago but this box was obviously forgotten. I looked though the box and was surprised to see a blonde wig. I was about to go upstairs to ask Dad but he came downstairs before I could.

"Why did Mom have a wig?"

"That was for a Halloween costume one year. I didn't realize I still had that."

"Actually, this will be perfect. I need to go see Montgomery today."

"You can't actually tell me that you are going into the precinct!" he exclaimed.

"I need to, besides my team are going to be out all week. No one will recognize me."

I knew that Dad wasn't happy with the idea but even he admitted that it would be difficult for anyone to recognize me. I managed to slip into the precinct with no problems. I was wearing the wig, much different makeup than normal and flats instead of my trademark heels. I knocked on the Captain's door and he looked up and when there was no sign of recognition, I knew my disguise was successful.

"Captain Montgomery," I said in my usual voice.

He looked shocked for a bit then finally found his voice. "Get in here and close the door."

"I have some things for you, sir."

"What the hell are you doing here?" he said in a quiet voice but I could tell that he was struggling to not start yelling.

"I had to bring some things to you, sir."

"You couldn't just have your dad bring them?" I shook my head. "Don't you trust your dad?"

"Of course, I trust him. I just know how he is though. If he thinks that I might have included the name of the person behind all of this, he might just try to do something. I can't risk that."

"Is the name in here?" Montgomery asked.

"No, but there are instructions on how to get the name. I am positive I know who did this but I don't have quite enough proof yet to put him away for life. He is powerful and he might be able to walk with what I have so far. I need to find more evidence."

"What can I do to help?"

"Nothing right now, not until after tomorrow evening."

"What the hell?"

"Sir," I said confused.

"What's he doing here?" he pointed out to the bullpen where Castle was walking in carrying two cups of coffee like he always did. "Did you tell him?"

"No." 

"Good because we discussed this already," he said as he walked out of his office. I watched as much as I could, thank goodness for handheld mirrors, then wished I hadn't watched. At first he just looked a bit confused then the look of grief on his face was nearly unbearable. The captain came back in a minute later and grabbed his flask.

"Sir," I couldn't stand to see the pain that I was causing in Castle's eyes. 

"No. Stay here. Think about what would happen to him and his family if telling him now backfires. Stay here." I watched again as Castle sat there and drank from the flask. A few minutes later, one of the uniform officers from downstairs stopped by and after speaking to the captain, he walked out with Castle.

"This is going to be a tough week," Montgomery told me once he got back in his office and shut the door.

"Why was he here?" I asked.

"He thought it was all a nightmare. I had to tell him again," he said looking rather upset. "And don't start telling me again that you want to tell him."

"I won't, sir. I hate to see him like that but you are right. This is probably the only way that we can take this all down and not risk too many people."

"Glad to see you finally realize that."

"I just hope he can forgive me when this is all over."

x-x-x-x-x

I went back to my Dad's place with no problems but I knew that I needed to get out of his place. I realized that he wasn't going to like my idea but I was going to have to win on this one too. I slipped into the back yard and sent Dad a text to let him know that I was back. He opened up the back door just moments later and I went in to talk to him.

"Are you okay? Did everything go well?"

"For the most part," I said as I walked in to the kitchen.

"What happened?" he asked worried.

"Castle came in but don't worry, he didn't see me."

"Why did he go in?"

"The captain said that he thought that it was all a nightmare and he came in as if nothing happened. Roy had to tell him all over again."

"Poor guy. Everything else is okay?"

"Yes. I am going to have to leave here though."

"Why?"

"The longer I stay here, the more I put you at risk. I need to go to a hotel or something for a few days to finish up getting this evidence. I am going to need some help though."

"You know anything I can do, I'll do it."

"I can't use my credit cards obviously," I started and before I finished saying that, he was already pulling out his wallet. "I can't let you use your cards though. If anyone notices that you suddenly are paying for a hotel, that may set off some alarm bells."

"How about cash then? I'll take out what ever you need from my account and put it out that I am going up to the cabin. If anyone asks, the cash is because I don't know how long I'll be gone and cash is easier up at the cabin."

"That's a good idea. I'll gather up my things while you run to the bank."

"Where are you going to stay?" he asked.

"Not sure yet but I will let you know. Love you Dad."

"Love you too, sweetie."

x-x-x-x-x

I was soon settled into a decent place in the city closer to the precinct. I had stopped for some fast food and nibbled that as I opened the suitcase that Dad insisted that I take. I realized that while I was packing up the notes and laptop, he was busy sneaking other things into the suitcase. I had had a couple of changes of clothes at his place and he had given me a few extra tee shirts and some sweat pants. He also managed to sneak in a little portable coffee pot, a bag of coffee, sweeteners and some snacks.

I sent a text to my dad and the Captain letting them know that I was in the city and safe and that I would call them that evening with name of the hotel. As much as I appreciated all of Dad's help in the last few days, I was glad to be alone for a while. I hadn't realized how nervous I was about accidentally letting the name slip or Dad finding it when I went to the bathroom or something.

For the rest of the day, I sat in my non-descript hotel room doing research. I was worried that unless I had overwhelming proof that Cal Long was the man behind all this mess, he would be able to make bail and run off. Or worse, get off on some stupid technicality. I had told Captain Montgomery about those concerns and he promised me that he would personally do what he could to make sure that everything went smoothly.

My biggest concern was actually getting the warrants to arrest him and look deeper into his financials and such. I knew that I could probably get into his financials but I also knew that unless I had a warrant, any of my work would be for naught. No judge would allow anything without a warrant especially in what is sure to be such a big case. There was no way that I was going to let this one slip by on a technicality.

I thought for a moment about what Castle would do in this situation and I knew right away that he would call in a favor and have a friend do it. I also knew that Cal was friends with Judge Markway. Of course, the man was friends with everyone from the Mayor down to homeless guys living in a shelter. I looked into Markway's background and saw that he had gone through a messy divorce about ten years ago. I don't know why that caught my attention but I decided to look into it a little more. I found some newspaper articles about the trial and it really was a messy one. There was a lot of 'he said, she said' going on and Cal was firmly on Markway's side in the trial.

I thought about how Cal stood by my dad's side after Mom was killed and I wondered if he had anything to do with Markway's divorce. After about two hours of searching for anything, I found what I was looking for. It turns out that Cal had set up everything to cause the divorce in the first place. It seems that Cal liked to cause trouble then stand beside his 'friend' and help them through their difficult times. I couldn't see any reason behind why Cal did this except to be able to be able to get more influential people in his back pocket.

Once I realized that he did that, I looked into some other influential people around the city. I wasn't too terribly surprised to see that Judge Markway wasn't the only one that Cal had sabotaged. I was rather surprised to see quite how many people that he had done it to though. I documented all the names in one file and spent the next few hours making sure that I had found everything that I could regarding Judge Markway and a few of the other names. I wanted to make sure that once we were able to get the warrants, we didn't have to waste time searching through all of this again.

I silently thanked my father again for the snacks and coffee pot as I took a break and ate some of the crackers. I let my mind wander a bit and as often happens when my mind wanders in a case, I was soon thinking of my partner. Out of curiosity sake, I decided to check and see if Castle knew Cal. It turns out that not only did they know each other, but Castle himself had been sabotaged by Cal, twice even.

By the time I had finally headed off to bed, I had quite a bit of dirt on Cal. None of what I had was technically illegal but it sure was immoral. I did know that once this info got out though, Cal would not be nearly as welcome as he now was around the city. I knew that this information is what I needed to be able to get the warrants that I needed in the first place. I knew that I needed to get some sleep and my mind wandered again to Castle. I fell asleep thinking about him yet again.

x-x-x-x-x

I called Montgomery first thing Wednesday morning and I asked him if he could contact Judge Markway for me. We talked about what I had found but I still gave no names. I knew that Cal would most likely be at the funeral later today and I didn't want Montgomery to accidently slip before I had all the proof that I needed. Unfortunately, I needed a warrant to be able to search the financials before I could get this proof.

After searching last night for the influential people that Cal knows and sabotaged, I spent most of the day searching for the less savory people that Cal knows. I was a bit restricted by the no warrants but I was still able to find some damning evidence. Enough evidence even to make sure that he was put in jail, for a while at least. Luckily, as the day went on, I was able to find even more evidence. It shocked me to see how obvious it was, the things that Cal had done but I guess that since he was so well liked, no one thought it was possible that he could do anything bad.

I was able to connect Cal to Ragland and McCallister through phone records and bank accounts. The company that paid the money out to the cops wasn't directly one of Cal's companies but I had already seen other indications that Cal owned that one. It was the same company that paid the vast majority of production costs for some indie film years ago. The only reason I knew anything about this film was because I had looked up Castle the night before. I had seen that this particular film was where Meredith met the director that she had an affair with when she was still married to Castle.

I looked deeper into Ragland and McCallister's records and saw some payments from some companies that I was unfamiliar with. I ran a check on all of them and soon found that they all traced back to a company called Longwitton. I didn't yet have proof that this Longwitton Company had anything to do with Cal Long but the evidence was overwhelming. There was no way that this was a coincidence.

I was about to go through a list of all of Cal's holdings that I could get without a warrant when my phone rang. I realized the time when I noticed that it was Captain Montgomery calling me. He actually called me from my own funeral.

"Is there anything in your apartment relating to your mothers case?" he asked without a greeting. 

"Yes," I said thinking quickly.

"And Castle knows this?" 

"Yes. Why?"

"He just demanded your mother's files, which I denied of course," he said reassuring me. "Then looked over to Lanie, said it was okay, and went to talk to her. She has a key, doesn't she?"

"Yes. Can you stall them somehow and keep them away from my place, for a while at least?"

"Sure."

"Thanks. I'll let you know when I am out." I saved all my files and uploaded the new information to the email account that I had set up before I left and rushed to my apartment. Halfway there, I got a text from the captain saying that they were all headed out to dinner and so I knew I had some time.

I managed to slip in to my place unnoticed and I went straight to my closet. I grabbed a few clothes and some clean underwear. I wanted to grab a few more things but I knew that if I took too much stuff, Lanie or Castle might notice it and begin to wonder. I took a deep breath and headed to the shutters that hid the murder board. I opened them and as usual was overcome with the pain that never really lessened. I snapped a few photos of the board so that I would be able to remember the order that I had everything before I started to pull off some of the notes.

It didn't feel right to take down the murder board. We only did that at the precinct when the case was closed or we had to give up and mark it as a cold case. I always hated that feeling of having to consider it a cold case and I hated, just hated to have to do that to my mother's case, again. I knew that I had enough evidence to put away the man responsible but he wasn't in jail yet so there was always a chance he would get away with this. I finally pulled down my mother's photo, the last thing on the board, and I wasn't able to stop the few tears that fell.

"Soon, Mom. I promise it will all be done soon."

Authors Final Notes:

I had suddenly thought about the fact that Kate needed warrants for the financials and I just couldn't figure out what to do from that. After a while I came up with something, I hope it turns out okay.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Notes: I did go back and make a small change in part 3. It's not anything major but I wanted to mention it to those who have already read it. Beckett and Montgomery talk about the recording that Castle made on his phone. Originally, he had forgotten about it but now, he remembers that he recorded it but hadn't saved it so he figured that it was lost. Kate said she saved it for him. That's about it. I realized that if he had forgotten everything in that conversation, then some of the humor that I was going to try to add in this part would be lost on Castle and I didn't want to do that to the poor guy. I mean he already has a concussion and bruised ribs.

This part is still a flash back.

Wednesday night

"How are they doing?" I asked as I gave Montgomery a call to let him know that I was out of my apartment.

"As well as can be expected, I guess."

"How's Castle?"

"Alexis says that he's been quiet. Not writing," he said causing me to sigh. "I told him if he can't write about Nikki Heat he should try to write about Kate Beckett instead. I think that got through to him a bit at least."

"I hate doing this to them," I said.

"I know you do."

"I need to talk to you in the morning. I want to give you the name and all the information. I might need to see Markway and try to get a warrant to get into the financials to solidify all the stuff I've gotten so far."

"Okay. We can talk about it in the morning. I'll stop by at your hotel."

"See you then, sir. And thank you for all your help."

x-x-x-x-x

I spent the rest of the night trying to do more research but my mind kept wandering back to Castle and my friends. I finally forced them from my thoughts and continued compiling evidence. Even without the warrants, I had found enough to put Cal in jail and I knew that once he was in custody, we would be able to find even more evidence. I just wished that I could find anything solid connecting him to my mother's murder. Putting him in jail regardless was going to be satisfying but putting him in jail for what had ruined so many lives would be even better. I eventually gave up for the night and fell into a troubled sleep.

I was awakened first thing Thursday morning by a loud knocking on my door. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my phone, thumb drive with all my research, and then my gun before I went to check the peephole on the door. It was the captain but I waited a moment and sent him a text.

"U alone?"

"Y," he responded. I could see him roll his eyes through the peep hole at my precaution before I opened the door standing behind it with my sidearm still at the ready.

"What's up?" he asked and quirked an eyebrow when he noticed my gun.

"I didn't get much sleep, I'm kinda jumpy."

"Can't say that I blame you. How are you doing other than that?"

"I have enough evidence to put Cal Long in jail for a very long time."

"Cal Long? Like THE Cal Long?"

"Yes, sir," I said.

"Good luck getting a judge to believe that to sign a warrant."

"That's why I need to talk to Markway."

"Why him specifically?"

"It seems that Cal enjoys sabotaging his friends so that he can stand by them in their time of need. Once he does that, he has them in his back pocket for whatever he might need."

"So he did something to Markway?"

"Long was behind his divorce. So I figure that once Markway knows this, he will be more than happy to sign any warrants."

"Damn. Good work detective. The only problem is that the judge is out of town right now."

"Do you know when he is expected back?"

"No," he said.

"Keep trying to get a hold of him. I'm sure that his secretary knows where he is and if you keep calling then she'll get a hold of him."

"So what all can you get him on?" the captain asked.

"Well I have proof of several people that he has sabotaged like Markway and then I went through Ragland's and McCallister's records and found payments to and from a company called Longwitton. I found that name in my mother's files."

"How does that connect to Long though?"

"He was a friend of the family and I knew him growing up. He used to tell me this story of a dragon that could turn invisible. It would guard a magic well that have curing powers. No one could kill it because the dragon would be in contact with the water all the time. Finally, a knight tricked the dragon and got it away from the well and killed it. The legend took place in Longwitton, England."

"That sounds good but you don't have proof that Long is behind it."

"True but once I get a warrant for his financials, I know that I will find that he owns that company. I do have some other evidence also. The only thing that I can't find, is anything connecting him to my mother's murder."

"If we can put him away for something small, then we might be able to get him on that eventually. They finally got Al Capone on tax evasion."

"But he only served about 8 years. I want Long to serve a lot longer than that," I said.

"We'll find something."

"How are they doing?" I asked. I had included all my friends but I am sure that the captain realized that I was really asking about Castle.

"Last night was tough. At dinner, it was mentioned that you split with Demming and was going to go to the Hampton's before Gina walked in."

"Oh, God," I whispered embarrassed that the captain had heard all about this. "What did Castle say?"

"Said he needed to leave, then he got up and walked away."

"You let him leave like that?"

"Esposito followed him. Said he walked all the way home then stayed in the loft the rest of the night. He called Alexis and let her know what happened and she kept an eye on him from there."

"You keep trying to get a hold of Markway and hopefully we can end this all soon."

"Sounds good. I'll call you when I hear anything," he said.

x-x-x-x-x

"Markway is back in the city," Montgomery said over the phone first thing Friday morning.

"Where is he?" I asked as I started throwing together all my files and my things.

"Here in my office. Do you want to come here or have us met you?"

"Here would be easier. I'll send you the warrants that I need printed then you can bring them with you," I paused a moment. "They are on the way."

"Okay. Let me open my email. Got them. I'll print them and we will be right over. Should I try to explain anything?"

"No. It will probably be better if I do it all here."

"See you in a few then," he signed off.

I took a deep breath and knew that this was almost over, no matter how it ended, it was going to end today. I gathered up all my personal things and put them all back in my suitcase. I then grabbed an envelope from the nightstand and wrote my dad's name on it and slipped my room key in it. I would leave it downstairs at the front desk so he could get my things if I wasn't able to.

Minutes after I got everything taken care of, there was a knock on my door. I checked the peephole and saw the captain and Markway. I opened the door but again remained behind it until it was once again locked.

"What is going on, Montgomery?" Markway asked before he saw me. "I heard you were dead."

"Someone was trying to kill me and almost succeeded."

"What do you need me here for?"

"I need you to sign some warrants for the arrest of the man responsible."

"And that would be?" he asked somewhat annoyed.

"Cal Long," I said.

"Cal wouldn't do that," he insisted. "He's a great guy."

"Let me show you something," I said as I handed him the paperwork showing how Cal had a hand in the Markway divorce proceedings.

"Cal was behind all of this? I thought he was my friend."

"I thought he was my friend too but he was the one who paid for my mother's murder," I said.

"I can't believe it," he said incredulously. "I can't sign a warrant just because he did something bad to me though."

"I know, and I would never ask you to do that. I just want to you have an open mind when you look through this paperwork that I have."

"What is all this?"

"Evidence that Cal Long has been behind a lot of bad things for a long time."

"It's so hard to believe," he mumbled.

"Just take a look, please."

Minutes passed in silence, it felt like hours, as Markway went through all my files. I could tell that he was passing over some items, I guess that he didn't think that they were worth getting a warrant for. I started to get worried when he finally spoke again.

"How did you get all this information if you didn't have a warrant?"

"Everything was public knowledge except for Ragland's and McCallister's financials. I used those to get the names of the places that paid them and I believe that they are some of Long's holdings. Nothing was obtained illegally," I said honestly.

He looked at me a moment then held out his hand to the captain. "The warrants?"

"Thank you," I said once he signed them.

"Are you going to go get him now?"

"Of course."

"Do me a favor when you are done though," he said.

"Talk to Castle. I won't say anything but you need to talk to him."

"That's the first thing I plan to do once Long is in custody."

x-x-x-x-x

Present Time back at Castle's Loft

"Once we had the warrants signed, we went over to Long's place. I never expected that he would have company," Kate said looking over at Castle as they finished up their dinner.

"I never expected you to walk in the door," he smiled as he lightly nudged her leg with his causing her to slightly wince. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, I got a few scrapes and cuts when I had to climb out of the car. Nothing too serious, you just bumped the bad one."

"Should you get that looked at?" Montgomery asked.

"No, it's fine," she insisted.

"Keep an eye on those cuts, girl and let me know if you need any help with them, okay?" Lanie asked as Kate nodded.

"Detective Beckett, if you aren't going to eat the rest of the cashew chicken, can you pass it to me?" Ashley asked.

"Oh dear Lord, don't ask Kate to pass things at the table. At least, the chicken is just messy not painful," Jim Beckett said causing Ashley to suddenly look terribly nervous. Especially the way his girlfriend's father, the captain, and the two Beckett's started smiling.

"Okay, girlfriend, what are we missing?" Lanie asked.

"Castle, would you like to start?" Beckett suggested.

"I went to Long's earlier today so that I could hear some stories about Kate as a kid. Well, he told a story about when Kate was little and the Beckett's went to his place for dinner."

"It was Kate's first formal dinner," her father took over the story. "We had gone out to dinner lots of times but usually at houses of friends who also had kids. Cal didn't have kids so this was a big deal. Johanna was worried and almost backed out at the last minute but I told her everything would be fine."

"She got to use her four favorite words on you that day, didn't she?" Kate interrupted.

"She sure did," he recalled fondly. "I thought that it would be best if I kept Kate busy that day and make sure that she didn't have too much energy when we went over there. So earlier in the day, I grabbed the football and passed it back and forth. Then we found the Frisbee. She was dangerous. Couldn't hit anything she was aiming for."

"Dad," she said in a warning tone.

"Well, you couldn't," he chuckled. "Of course, this just upset her and instead of just giving up like most kids, she focused on getting it right. By the time we left, she was doing pretty good."

"So even as a kid you were, what's the right word?" Castle said with a smile.

"Stubborn," Jim said soon to be followed by comments from Ryan and Esposito.

"Obstinate."

"Adamant."

"I preferred headstrong," Kate said while giving the guys a glare.

"Strong willed," Alexis piped up.

"Thank you, Alexis," Kate said.

"I was going to say determined," Castle said as he leaned a bit closer to her.

"Sure you were," she said as she rolled her eyes at him but nudging his leg under the table.

"Anyway," the elder Beckett interrupted. "We got to the dinner and everything was going fine. Katie was being very well behaved for the most part," he winked at her. "Finally we went into the dining room and there was the table all set with china and crystal. Nothing happened. I was going to just put some food on her plate so we didn't have to pass the heavy dishes to her. I was sure that would work until Cal asked her to pass her plate to him so he could do the same thing."

"So what happened?" asked Ashley.

"Kate was rather literal as a kid and when Cal said to 'pass the plate' she suddenly thought back to the football and Frisbee that we had done earlier in the day."

"Oh no!" Jenny exclaimed amid stifled chuckles from the other detectives.

"Oh yes. Tossed it right at him. I don't know if it was good or not that she still hadn't perfected her aim though. It was right about throat height but it flew right passed him and shattered against the wall. It probably would have hurt if it actually hit him."

"What did he do?" Martha asked.

"Had one of the staff clean it up and get her another plate. Of course, the next time we went there for dinner, Kate had her very own place setting of non-breakable china." Everyone laughed, even Kate.

"Detective Beckett," Ashley asked once the laughter was over. "Can you please hand me the cashew chicken?"

"Smart boy," said Jim.

"So, what were your mom's favorite words?" Castle asked.

"I told you so," both Jim and Kate responded together with a smile as Captain Montgomery's phone rang.

"That was Simmons from forensic accounting. They are all working on Long's accounts and they just verified that he is the sole owner of the company Longwitton. That links him to it all."

Cheers went up from everyone. Even though she was pretty sure that she had the evidence to put him away, this combined with Castle's recording would definitely put Long away for a lengthy prison stay.

"Drinks all around," Castle called out. Martha stood up and went for the wine glasses and a few bottles from the wine cooler.

"For those of legal drinking age," added Alexis as she peeked over to Ashley. "And those not on pain pills."

"Spoilsport," he grumbled. "It's a celebration, you can have something if you want to, pumpkin."

"You are offering me alcohol in front of three detectives and the captain of the police department?" Alexis replied. "You must have hit your head harder than they thought."

"I still say we need to have something special to celebrate. Mother," he said dramatically. "Please pull out two bottles of the special bubbly for those of us not drinking my Châteauneuf-du-Pape."

"Very well, Richard. Alexis can you give me a hand?" Alexis hopped up and soon everyone had a glass in front of them and the wine and special bubbly, known to others as sparkling apple cider, was poured. Just as they were about to make a toast, the captain's phone rang again and their laughter stopped when he lost his smile.

"No," he said to the phone. "No, it's not like that. Excuse me," he said to the group as he stood up and walked into the other room.

Everyone put down their drinks, suspecting that this was bad news. They were all quiet until the captain came back in the room.

"What's wrong, Captain?" Beckett asked.

"It's not about the case, well not exactly. Someone else is on their way over here, if you don't mind Castle."

"Not a problem, sir. Is Long still in jail?"

"Yes and he won't be getting out anytime soon, if I have anything to say about it."

"So what was that call about, sir?" Kate asked.

"Um, well," he said almost sounding embarrassed. "Remember when you called and left a message on my phone the other day?"

"It seems that someone saw it. Give it a few more minutes and I'm sure all hell is going to break loose."

"What happened?" Martha asked.

"My son happened."

"Oh, sons are known to cause trouble," she mentioned.

"Mother!"

"You deny it, Richard? Really?" she asked with laughter.

"Well, no I guess not," he admitted causing more laughter.

"What did your son do, Captain?" Alexis asked.

"It seems that he saw my phone and wanted to play with it. He happened to see the phone log and noticed that there were a lot of calls from some woman."

"Oh," Alexis said obviously embarrassed at the conversation now.

"They were from Beckett," he said smiling so Alexis knew she shouldn't be embarrassed. "My son saw I had been texting and calling some woman that he didn't know a lot this week and so he thought he should tell his mother."

"Sounds like he was just looking out for his mother," Martha said before she glanced Rick with a smile. "Son's are good at that too."

"Yeah, it's just bad timing though. My sister in law just went through a nasty divorce. Seems that the husband had been cheating on her for a while and she just found out by finding it on his phone log."

"Oooh, that is bad timing," Rick said just before the doorbell rang. "And now for perfect timing, here she is."

"Want me to answer the door?" Kate asked.

"No, I don't want to scare her too bad," Montgomery said as he went to the door.

"Where is she?" Iris Montgomery said without preamble.

"Sweetheart, let me explain," he said softly as he tried to lead her into the study to have some privacy.

"Don't you sweetheart me, Roy Montgomery," she raised her voice causing a stifled chuckle from Esposito before he was elbowed by Lanie. "I want to know what's going on here."

"I told you on Monday that Beckett was killed Sunday."

"Yes and I know that has upset you but that doesn't mean you need to be seeing someone else."

"I'm not, I promise. It seems that the State Police was premature in announcing her death though. She's alive and okay."

"That's good but what does this have to do with this Nicole James woman?" she asked still a bit upset.

"Beckett managed to get away from the accident and get to her father's house. I saw her there Monday morning, after I called you to tell you. I got to the Beckett house and there she was. She had finally figured out who had paid for her mother's murder and knew that they were the ones that had tried to run her off the road and kill her too. She told me that she had to stay dead at least for a while to get the proof that she needed to convict the man but she needed my help."

"How?" she asked no longer with any anger.

"She needed my access to the department's files, a phone and that sort of thing. I bought her a burn phone and some other things. I needed to put her new number in my phone but I couldn't use her real name so I came up with Nicole James. I thought Nikki Heat would be a little too obvious."

"So you aren't having an affair?"

"Never, sweetheart," he said as he took her into his arms and kissed her.

When they finally pulled apart, she looked around and asked, "Whose place is this then?"

"This is Castle's loft. Shall we go out and say hi to them all?"

"Who all is here?" she asked realizing that she was so angry when she came in she didn't notice anyone.

"Everyone," he said simply.

"And now they all think I am some crazy harpy of a wife."

"Not at all. I bet they just think that you are a strong woman who will fight for what is yours."

"And don't you forget it, mister," she grinned.

"No, ma'am. I won't," he said with a smile as he led her out of the study to greet the curious group. "Everyone, I would like to introduce you to my lovely wife, Iris."

"I'm sorry for the confusion, Iris," Kate said as she walked over to give her a quick hug.

"Oh that's okay, Kate. Or should I call you Nicole James?"

"I needed to put something into my phone so I would know it was you and I thought Nikki Heat was too obvious," the captain repeated when he saw the looks of confusion around the table.

"Why James though?" Kate asked.

"I figured that James was more common than Jamison," Montgomery stated.

"Why didn't you use Rook?" Castle asked with his signature smirk.

"Do you want me to poke you in the ribs?" Kate asked him menacingly soft voice.

"No," he whined.

"Then be good," she insisted as she met his eyes. They were smoldering and she could almost hear him say 'You have no idea.' She rolled her eyes at him and attempted to ignore him again.

"I'm just glad that you are alright, Kate. I do wish that Roy had told me what was going on though," Iris said as she accepted a glass of wine from Martha.

"Only he and my dad knew. Roy wouldn't even let me tell Castle."

"And he still managed to get in the middle of everything and get his head bashed in," Montgomery said with a mock serious look.

"So next time, I might as well just tell him," Kate said.

"There damn well better not be a next time that we think you are dead," Castle exclaimed.

"I meant, the next time I have to go undercover," Kate clarified as she unconsciously patted his knee.

"Good," he said as he gently took her hand in his and met her eyes. "Because I don't think I can handle it again if I hear that you were killed."

"I'm just glad that she showed up at my place when she did," Jim Beckett said trying to calm the tension between his daughter and her partner a bit. "She was only at home about thirty minutes before the State Police came to tell me she was killed. Even though I knew she was in the other room, it scared the hell out of me."

"I really am sorry to put you through that, Dad," she said as she reached over and gave him a hug.

"It's okay, Katie girl," he whispered. Kate soon straightened up and unconsciously replaced her hand on Castle's knee. Seeing the somewhat saddened looks on nearly everyone face, Kate decided to try to lighten up the mood a bit.

"Thanks for the Chinese, Alexis. I have been wanting some all week. I've been stuck eating out of vending machines or the occasional fast food place."

"How come?"

"I didn't want to go to my favorite restaurant and take the chance that they would recognize me."

"But you could go to the precinct?" asked her father.

"You went into the precinct?" Esposito asked

"Are you crazy?" Ryan asked.

"I was in disguise."

"And a good one. I didn't recognize her." Montgomery said.

"Detective Beckett is pretty tall, how come you didn't recognize that?" asked Alexis.

"When she isn't wearing her heels, she almost looks short," Montgomery said.

x-x-x-x-x

"Dad, can you wait a second?" Alexis asked as the rest of the adults walked into the living room.

"What's up, pumpkin?"

"Ashley and I were going to go to a concert tonight but we canceled it after Monday. I thought he gave the tickets away but he just told me he still has them. Would it be okay if we go out?

"I guess. How late do you think you'll be?"

"I'm not sure. Probably no later than midnight."

"Okay, but call if you are going to be later."

"Alright Dad, as long as it won't wake you up."

"You know I don't mind, pumpkin. You have a good time. I'll be fine," he said as they walked into the living room, arm in arm.

"Detective Beckett, can I talk to you real quick?" Alexis asked.

"Sure," she said as she got up and followed her into the kitchen, far enough away for some privacy.

"Do you mind if I go out with Ashley?"

"Not at all, he is your boyfriend," she grinned.

"I mean this is sort of your celebration," Alexis stated.

"I don't mind at all."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, go have fun. But not too much fun," Kate said with a smile.

"Can you do me a favor?"

"I'll try," Kate said.

"I shouldn't be too late and I don't know how long everyone is going to be here but I really worry about leaving Dad alone. Could you stay?"

"What about your grandmother?"

"You think Gram can keep an eye on Dad?" Alexis asked.

"I'm sure she could," Kate said.

"Probably but I think she is going to be leaving also. Something about interviewing more people for her school." Alexis paused for a minute before continuing. "Like I said, I'm not sure how late I'll be so you might as well just plan on spending the night. Your Dad brought a bag of your clothes when he came. I put it in the closet so it wasn't just sitting there. You won't have to leave to get go anything."

"Thanks Alexis. Your dad already asked me at the hospital to keep an eye on him tonight," Kate said a bit embarrassed, she wasn't sure what the teenager would think about her staying over.

"Dad really cares for you."

"I know, Alexis," Kate said as she turned to look at Rick who was watching them. "The feeling is mutual."

"That's great," Alexis said as she gave Kate a quick hug. "If I don't see you tonight, I'll see you in the morning. Dad isn't going to let you leave anytime soon."

"You have a good time tonight, tell me all about it in the morning."

"Okay," she bounded off to the living room. "Ashley, are you ready?"

"Yep. Thanks for dinner, Mr. Castle. I'm glad you and Detective Beckett are okay."

"Thanks Ashley. Need a ride to the concert? I'm sure one of the guys would drive you. Of course, you would have to ride in the back seat of the cruiser."

"Dad," Alexis warned.

"What?" he questioned innocently enough but the twinkle in his eyes gave him away.

"Be good."

"But that's no fun," he whined causing both Alexis and Kate to roll their eyes at him. "Oh no, they are both doing it now. You shouldn't be picking up bad habits from Kate."

"Would you rather I pick up your bad habits?" she questioned.

"No," he admitted as she realized that he had given her permission to go out to a concert with her boyfriend.

"I thought not. Love you Dad. Bye everyone. Have a good night."

"We probably better call it a night also," Iris Montgomery said after Alexis left. "I need to properly apologize to someone for a certain misunderstanding."

Castle was unable to stop the chuckle that escaped before he noticed that everyone else was studiously trying not to smile. Castle therefore earned a glare from the captain before he followed his wife out of the loft. Martha headed out next along with Jenny and Ryan who offered to give her a ride. Martha did insist that Rick promise to call her if he needed anything.

"I think we are going to hit the movies, Kate," Esposito said as they stood up and walked toward the door.

"So glad you're okay, girlfriend," Lanie said as she drew Kate into a hug. "You need a ride anywhere?"

"No. I'm going to stay here until Alexis gets back," she said softly no really wanting to say any more when her dad might overhear.

"Okay. Call me later if you want to talk," Lanie said as she glanced from Kate to Castle, leaving no doubt in Kate's mind what Lanie wanted to hear all about.

"Subtle, Lanie. Real subtle," she chuckled as Lanie left.

Kate was headed back to the living room but stopped when she saw her dad walking from the dining area carrying plates.

"Let me help you with that, Dad."

"Don't worry about it, I'll get it later," insisted Castle once he realized they were cleaning up. Jim took a page out of Kate's book and simply ignored him. Soon the table was cleared and they were in the kitchen.

"You have some really good friends, Katie."

"I know. I'm lucky."

"Rick has s nice family. That Alexis is a sweetheart," Jim commented.

"They are great."

"She's very mature too."

"I know," Kate smiled. "I guess that's because she had to raise Castle not the other way around."

"I stopped by at the hotel and picked up your suitcase. I'm not sure what Alexis did with it."

"She told me. Thank you Dad." She kind of hoped that he wasn't going to ask her where she planned on spending the night.

"Rick loves you," he said softly.

"I know. He told me at the hospital," she said not meeting her father's eyes.

"What did you say to that?" he asked.

"I told him," she suddenly paused realizing that she hadn't told him what she thought she had. "I told him that he made me happy."

"So you are finally going to listen to your heart?"

"Yes," she smiled at him.

"Good. I should get going. Give me a call if you need a ride or anything."

"Okay. I'll talk to you tomorrow sometime," she said as they walked back into the living room.

"It's been a great evening, Rick but I am going to have to call it a night."

"It was nice meeting you again under better circumstances this time," Rick said with a grin.

"That it was," he said as they shook hands before he headed to the door with Kate.

"Love you Katie girl," he said as he gave her another quick hug.

"Love you too, Dad."


	6. Chapter 6

Authors Notes: This is most likely the last part of this story, or at least the last T-rated part. I am brainstorming an M-rated chapter to go with this but I haven't even started it yet. That is one problem about posting as I go, that is why I like to have the story done or mostly done at least before I start posting. I certainly didn't do that for this story though but my next story is nearly finished so I will be able to start posting that one sometime soon. Many thanks go to my new buddy teelduo for the encouragement on this and my other stories. I have a Twitter account, CharlieOKelley there also, and I have had a lot of fun with it so far. I try to post updates and other tidbits on there but I haven't yet figured out how to post pictures or links. Have to work on that. Thanks again to everyone who has encouraged me with this. All the reviews, alerts and hits are really wonderful to see. Thanks!

* * *

Once Jim was gone, Kate walked back over to Rick, both suddenly a little bit nervous about what was going to happen next.

"You don't have to stay over if you don't want to," Rick said realizing that she as nervous just as he was.

"Yes I do," she smiled. "Alexis asked me."

"Oh so you listen to my daughter but not me?" he asked as he walked closer to her.

"You never listen to me," she shot back with a grin.

"True."

"No, I'm here because I want to be." She pulled him into a hug. "I was talking to my dad earlier and I realized something."

"What's that?" he asked the top of her head before he gently placed a kiss on her hair.

"You told me at the hospital that you love me."

"I do," he said as he pulled back to look into her eyes.

"So many people have told me that you do but I didn't believe them."

"Do you believe me?" he asked as he lightly caressed her cheek.

"Yes. I just didn't get the chance to tell you that I love you too," she admitted.

He surprised her by simply pulling her tighter into his arms and holding her. She thought that he would have kissed her or tried to take her back to his room but he seemed happy to just hold her. And in truth, she was just as happy to be held. It had taken her a long time to admit it to herself even but she just liked the feel of his arms around her. After a while, he finally pulled back.

"We probably should be calling it a night soon," he said still not wanting to let her go.

"I'm sure you are exhausted."

"I am."

She looked at him and could tell that he was thinking about something but she wasn't able to read him like she usually could.

"What's wrong, Rick?"

"Um, I don't mean to be presumptuous but uh, where do you want to sleep tonight? The guest room is ready if you want it but I don't really want to let you go. I'm afraid that I'll wake up and think this was all a dream," he said not meeting her eyes.

"This hasn't been a dream, Rick," she replied as she took his face into her hands and forced him to meet her eyes. "Do you want me to stay with you?"

"Yes," he said quietly.

"Then I will. You go ahead and get ready for bed. I'll stay up and wait for Alexis."

"You don't have to."

"If I don't, then I know that you will. Dads always wait up for their teenage daughters when they are on a date."

"Did your dad wait up for you?"

"All the time. Even when I lived at home for a bit after college. It about drove me crazy," she said then she saw the look of concern pass over his face. "Don't worry though. It bugged me then but now I realize that it was just his way of showing me how much he loves me."

He stifled a yawn before he spoke again. "Will you have her come in when she gets home? Even if you are waiting up for her, I don't know if I'll be able to sleep well until I know she's safe."

"Of course, Rick. You go to bed and I'll be there in a while. Do you mind if I do some laundry while I wait?"

"Not at all. Everything is still in the same spot," he said before he kissed her on the forehead and headed to his bedroom.

Kate stood there for a moment before she found her suitcase and went to start some laundry. She was glad that things had all ended when they did because she hardly had any clean clothes left. She knew that she could have just taken the clothes to her dad's house and washed them there, but she also knew that he would tease her about bringing home her dirty laundry. It would have been the same mock argument they always had when she would come home to visit from college loaded down with dirty laundry.

Normally Kate would read while waiting on the laundry but she decided to just do some thinking tonight. So much had changed in the past week, her friends went to her funeral, she found the man who arranged her mother's murder, and she and Rick had finally admitted their feeling for each other. She wanted to be able to talk to Rick about Cal Long so she let her mind slip to Rick himself. She was still amazed that they had both finally come clean about their feelings, to themselves and each other.

Kate did have to admit to herself that part of her was still nervous about this new relationship. She didn't want things to move too fast but then again they have been waiting for three years to get to this point. She knew that she was going to have to talk to him about it soon. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a key in the door.

"Detective Beckett," Alexis said surprised to see her sitting on the couch in a tee shirt and yoga pants.

"You can call me Kate, you know," she said to the young redhead.

"Okay, Kate. Did Dad make you stay up to keep an eye out for me?"

"No, I volunteered. He was exhausted but he did say that he still wants you to come in to see him when you get home."

"Do Dad's ever stop being so overprotective?"

"Not really," Kate smiled. "It does get better when you are out on your own but I can see your dad being just as overprotective then. He loves you."

"I know. I'm so glad you are okay, Kate," Alexis said as she hugged the detective. "Dad was inconsolable. I couldn't do anything to make him feel any better."

"I'm so sorry that I had to put you all through that. I never wanted to hurt you. I wanted to tell your dad but I knew it would put you all at risk. I didn't realize that he knew Cal so I am really glad I never said anything," Kate said as she turned at a noise from his room.

"Is Dad having nightmares again?" Alexis asked as they walked to his room.

"He said he was afraid that he would," Kate said as she pushed his door open. She saw him lying on his back, tangled in his sheets. She approached him and calling his name, she lightly touched his face. His eyes shot open then he reached up and touched her face.

"You're okay?" he asked as he sat up, carefully due to his ribs.

"Yes, Rick. I'm fine," she insisted. She was a bit surprised when he pulled her close and kissed her.

"Um. Dad, ew," Alexis said from the door.

"Oh hey, pumpkin," he said as he pulled away a bit from Kate but kept her in his arms. "Did you have a nice date?"

"Yes. Kate said you wanted to see me when I got home."

"I just wanted to make sure you were back home and safe."

"I'm fine, Dad," Alexis said as she rolled her eyes before she shared a smile with Kate. "I'll tell you about the concert tomorrow after you get some sleep. Love you, Dad. Thanks again for staying, Kate."

"Not a problem. Night Alexis." Kate didn't move from where she was sitting on the side of the bed but they both raised an eyebrow when the teenager closed the door all the way.

"So I guess she knows that I'm not using the guest room tonight," Kate said.

"Is that okay?" he asked again as he ran his fingers through her hair.

"Yes," she said knowing that she needed to be honest with him. "I'm not sure if I am ready for much more right now though."

"That's fine, Kate. We've had a crazy week, there is nothing wrong with letting things try to calm down a bit before we take the next step. We've danced around this for a while now, we can wait a little longer."

"You don't mind?" she asked.

"Not at all. I do want to tell you something though," he said as his hand wandered up and down her arm.

"What's that?"

"You might have noticed that I'm kind of the touchy type."

"Really?" she asked sarcastically.

"Be nice. Is it okay if I can still touch you?"

"Yes," she said before he quickly pulled her into his arms.

"Will you stay here tonight? I promise, I'll be good," he asked. She leaned back a bit and raised one eyebrow at his promise. "Well, yes, I would be good but I mean, I'll be a gentleman. I just want to hold you. Please."

"Scoot over," she said.

Moments later, they were curled up in the bed together. Rick was spooned against her back and his arms tightly wrapped around her. Kate's left hand was entwined with his left hand resting on her belly. They both knew that they needed to talk but both felt that they now had plenty of time.

x-x-x-x

Kate woke up in the morning to the sound of her cell phone ringing. Keeping her eyes closed, she went to reach for it when she noticed that she wasn't alone, nor was she in her own bed. Rick, still asleep, held on tighter, not wanting to let her go. Kate gently caressed his arm then eased back into his embrace once she opened the phone.

"Beckett," she said softly.

"Morning, Beckett," said Captain Montgomery. "I hate to do this but I am going to need you and Castle to come down to the precinct sometime this morning. I have paperwork for you and we need to get an official statement from Castle."

"Okay," she said as Castle began to stir behind her. "I'll be there in about an hour, if that's okay."

"Sounds good. See you then."

Kate hung up the phone just before Rick started to nuzzle her neck causing a slight moan to slip from her lips. Tossing her phone to the nightstand, she eased back into his arms and let him continue for a few moments.

"Now this dream is much better," he mumbled.

"It's not a dream," she smiled as she covered his hand with hers and rolled over in his arms to face him. She studied his face for a moment, his eyes closed, and then with her free hand she lightly touched his cheek. "You can open your eyes, you know. I'll still be here."

He shook his head slightly, "No. I'll open my eyes and you will be gone like you always are." Kate just leaned up a bit then lightly kissed him. "Mmm, my dream doesn't do that."

"Told you I wasn't a dream," she said with a smile.

"This is better than a dream," he said finally opening his eyes. "This is heaven."

"Rick," she said before he covered her lips with his again. Soon she forgot that she was going to tell him that they needed to get to the precinct. She only remembered when she ran a hand down his side and bumped his bruised ribs, causing him to gasp. "I'm so sorry."

"That's okay, Kate," he said as he lay back on the bed, Kate cuddling into his arms, but being much more mindful of his ribs. "Who was that on the phone?"

"Montgomery. He needs us to go in this morning."

"Do we have to?" he whined.

"Yes, I have some paperwork to do and you need to give your official statement about yesterday."

"Okay. Wanna share the shower?"

"No," she chuckled at the look of disappointment on his face. "If we shower together, we'll never get to the 12th."

"Is that a challenge?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, it's a promise," she said as she slipped out of his arms and the bed, giving him a final kiss before walking to the door. "I'll shower in the guest bathroom."

x-x-x-x

Just over an hour later they walked into the precinct together. By some unspoken agreement, the moment the elevator doors opened, they stepped a bit apart, no longer holding hands. Rick knew that she was private and while she had previously showed some public displays of affection, he didn't want to push her into anything that she wasn't ready for. He did stay close to her but it wasn't anything more than usual as he was normally in her personal space.

Several people stopped and stared at Kate as she walked by and went straight to the Captain's office.

"As you all can see, the news that we received earlier in the week was incorrect," the Captain announced to everyone that was there. "Beckett was working undercover and her dedication led to the arrest of Cal Long on multiple counts including extortion and murder."

Several people clapped then went to talk to her and Castle before the Captain finally had to call her into his office for the paperwork. They took Castle's official statement then Kate moved to her desk and started on some of the mountain of paperwork. It was almost lunchtime when Iris Montgomery walked in. She looked over at Kate's desk and stood there watching the couple for a few moments before she walked into her husband's office.

"Hey honey, are they finally together?" Iris asked, curious because she had heard stories about the two for years now.

"I don't know. I am pretty sure that they finally realize how the other feels now but with the two of them, who knows."

"Are you done here? Can I take you out to lunch?"

"I still have a few hours of paperwork but the important stuff is done. Want to invite them too?"

"Sure, call Esposito and Ryan too, have them meet us at that little Italian place we like. I'm going to go talk to them."

Iris walked out of his office and once again looked at the couple.

"Hey Kate, Rick," she said.

"Hi Iris," Kate said as she saw her captain walk out of his office. "How are you doing this morning?"

"Doing fine. I've convinced Roy to take a break for lunch. Would you two be interested in joining us?" she asked.

"Sure," Kate said after glancing to Rick and seeing the near imperceptible nod.

"Great. Roy is calling Esposito and Ryan also so they should be there too."

x-x-x-x

The group was having a nice lunch at the Montgomery's favorite Italian place, Guiseppe's. Once the waiter took their order, Castle happened to catch the Captain in a yawn.

"You okay, Captain? Not enough sleep last night?" Castle asked with a twinkle in his eye as he received a glare.

"I did spend quite a bit of time properly apologizing to him last night," Iris said. "And speaking of last night, are you two still ignoring the obvious or have you seen the light?"

"I like her. We gotta spend more time together," Lanie said before turning to Kate. "Are you going to answer?"

Rick looked over at Kate and could tell that she was a bit unsure how to proceed. He knew that she wouldn't want to make a huge deal of it but he felt that their friends deserved to know, at least some of what was going on. He held his hand out to her and smiled as she took it.

"It's about damn time," Esposito said. The rest of the table smiled but seeing that Kate was a bit nervous, they decided to drop the subject for a while.

"So, Kate do you have plans for tonight? We should get together for a Girls Night," suggested Lanie.

"That sounds good but I can't do it tonight. I have something I need to do," Kate said.

Rick's eyes flicked to hers wondering what her plans were since this was the first he heard of them. The ladies tentatively set a date for the following Friday for Girl's Night while the men decided on a poker night at Castle's loft. Soon they were all saying their goodbyes, Lanie catching Kate privately to remind her to call with any details she wanted to share. Rick held Kate's hand as they walked back to his car. She climbed into the drivers seat just as she had earlier.

"You know, this is my car, I should be allowed to drive it," he joked.

"You don't know where we are going?" she said with a small smile.

"I have a GPS."

"This is easier," she insisted surprised that he gave up so easy.

She stopped a few minutes later and hopped out before walking into a florist. Rick watched silently as Kate looked around for a few minutes before addressing the petite girl behind the counter.

"Do you have any sunflowers?"

"Yes. We just got some in the back. Would you like me to make you a bouquet?"

"Please," Kate said as she turned to see Rick looking at her, his mind obviously racing.

"Are you okay?" he asked gently. She simply nodded, but her eyes were very sad. She walked over to some pre-made bouquets and selected one of those also with lots of vibrant colors. The florist returned and rang up the sale. Kate stopped Rick's hand as he reached for his wallet, insisting that she pay herself.

Rick carried the flowers and gently placed them in the back seat of the car before they climbed in and drove off. He watched her as she drove but he stayed uncharacteristically silent as they pulled into a cemetery. Kate stopped the car then took a deep breath before opening the door. Rick stepped out of the car and reached for the flowers before handing them to Kate.

"Do you want me to come with you?" he asked.

"Not right now," she said.

"I'll be here if you need me."

Kate walked over to a grave, stopped a moment and left the vibrantly colored flowers before moving to the next grave. She tenderly placed the sunflowers on her mother's grave then sat down, mindless of the grass and her nice clothes. She hesitantly reached out and touched the name, tracing the letters, then the words on the headstone, stopping at the last one, mother.

"Hi Mom. Sorry, I haven't been here before. I have so much to tell you."

Rick stood at the car, wanting to go be with Kate but knowing that she needed this time to herself. He saw her crying and was about to go to her anyway when a hand stopped him.

"She needs this time, Rick," Jim Beckett said.

"I hate seeing her cry," he admitted to the older man, who was also holding a bouquet of sunflowers.

"I know, Rick. She just needs to talk to her mom and she's got 12 years to talk about."

"Twelve years. Has she not been here before? She came straight here."

"As far as I know she hasn't been here since her mother's funeral. She was here often enough before that though, my parents are buried right beside Johanna. We used to come here often. Katie loved her Nana and Poppy."

"I never really knew my grandparents. Mother's family wasn't terribly thrilled when I came along out of wedlock. I met them several times but never really knew them. Certainly not enough to call them Nana and Poppy. It was Grandmother and Grandfather."

"Jo's parents are a bit more formal but Katie still knows she is loved."

"She still has grandparents?" Rick asked surprised.

"They live upstate and they aren't able to drive much anymore. I didn't want to put them through the whole thing this week so I never told them. I think I'll see about going up to visit them later this week. Would you and Kate like to come also?"

"Yes, I'm sure she would." He didn't say that he would come yet because he wanted to see if Kate invited him herself.

"I tried to get her to come here the first few years but after a while, I stopped trying. I realized that she couldn't come to really say goodbye until she caught the bastard who did this." They fell silent for a few moments before Jim spoke again. "Do you love my daughter?"

"Yes, sir," he said seriously and truthfully, knowing that this was not a time for joking.

"She's been through a lot in the past 12 years."

"I know, and I want to do whatever I can to make up for it. I'm not saying that I think everything will be easy but I'm not going to give up on her."

"Good. She isn't one to give up either, she needs a man who will fight for her not against her."

"I can't promise that we will never fight but I can promise that I will always be there for her," Rick said as Jim nodded. They again fell silent, watching the woman they both loved. The men noticed that her tears seemed to have slowed down considerably and she was trying to wipe them away with the back of her hand.

"Let's go see her," Jim said.

They walked up and Jim gently placed his flowers beside Kate's.

"Dad," she looked up in surprise. "How long have you been here?"

"Hey, sweetheart. I've been here a bit. Good to see you here."

"It was time," she said as she accepted the handkerchief that Rick silently offered. "Thank you, Rick."

Kate wiped her eyes then taking Rick's offered hand, she stood up. "Mom, I want you to meet Rick. I was telling you about him. Can you believe it that I'm actually in love with Richard Castle, your favorite author?"

Rick smiled at Kate then nervously said, "Hi."

"I'm going to let Dad talk to you now, Rick and I need to go home. I'll be back soon. I promise."

Kate dropped Rick's hand only to wrap her arm around his waist then after a quick good bye to her father, they headed back to their car. Kate fished the keys out of her pocket and handed them back to Rick. He silently got in the car and they drove home. They didn't speak until they got back up to the loft.

"Can you hold me, Rick?" she asked softly.

"Always."

* * *

I am not going to be marking this as complete until I either post the M-Rated chapter or decide that this needs to just end here. Thanks again, hope you enjoyed.


	7. Chapter 7

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